Loonatics Unleashed: Loonatics Extreme
by Station Square Guardian
Summary: After the fight in Blanc, things changed. The Loonatics are getting ready to set their HQ in Blanc, and Zadavia is going away. A new evil rises and Sylth Vester, Tweetums, Pinkster, along with three more individuals are chosen to be part of the Loonatics.
1. Zadavia's Gift

First of all, I don't own the characters of the "Loonatics Unleashed", with the exception of my own characters, the ones I will introduce in this new story. The story will follow after the ending of the second season, and to be clear, so that way no one has any confusions or mistakes about it, I created a different descendant of Pepé Le Pew, because I never liked Pierre Le Pew. The character of Pierre Le Pew doesn't exist in my version of the story… Instead, there's a new descendant of Pepé Le Pew, which I think you will like even more. But, let's get down to business… If any of you has any ideas for this story you can always send them to me, because I'm open to suggestions to make the story even better.   
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LOONATICS UNLEASHED: A New Beginning

Chapter 1: Zadavia's Gift

After the battle between the Loonatics and Deuce, on the planet Blanc, at the center of the universe, peace reigned once again. Old enemies became new allies. The Loonatics decided to stay in Blanc, using "Wormhole Central" to assure that not only their home planet, Acmetropolis was safe, but also the entire universe. Wherever evil struck, they would be there to protect the people and save the day, as usual.

Optimatus, Zadavia's brother and the first enemy of the Loonatics, had decided to use his powers for good. Zadavia decided that it was time for her to return to her home planet, and accept her place as the new queen. However, she was troubled. She frowned as she looked out from the window of one of the many rooms in the palace of Blanc, ruled by their leader, the Royal Tweetums.

'The battle has been won, my brother is now on the side of right, and Deuce is defeated. My Loonatics have proven once again to be the strongest team of heroes that has ever existed and yet, something tells me that they're not ready for the new challenges that await them. With me taking my new duties, I know they will need all the help they can get. I should ask Optimatus to help them, but he needs time for himself so he can better understand the choice he's made.' –She thought to herself.

Suddenly, someone opened the door of the room; she looked over her shoulder to see who it was. Ace Bunny, leader of the Loonatics entered the room. He was wearing his black uniform with a yellow patch on it, Zadavia's insignia, and he looked quite happy to see her.

"Hey what's up Zadavia? Is everything, okay?" –Ace asked, as he walked toward her.

"I'm fine, Ace. I was just thinking of the things that you and your team accomplished in today's battle." –She said smiling warmly at him.

"Well, I have to say it….we really saved the day, once again, but if it wasn't for you or your brother, not to mention 'His Feathered Highness' Tweetums and Sylth Vester, we wouldn't have won. Everyone helped, and I do think that we all did a pretty good job."-He said proudly.

"You surprised me, Ace. I never thought that you would be able to control the powers of the 'Guardian Strike Sword' that well, at least not in such a short time and, even though you saved the Universe and defeated Deuce with your own skills, you still act like it was no big deal, and even thanked the rest of the people that helped you. Most people would just take all the credit for it, but you… you still refuse to take it all. That is commendable." She said praising him then her expression turned solemn, "However, I need to talk to you about a delicate situation." –Zadavia said carefully.

"Sure… I'm all ears, literally." –Ace said smirking a little because it was true, his big ears could hear even the littlest noise.

"You see… I wanted to talk to you about what's going to happen now that I'm going away. You and your team protected Acmetropolis very well, from every type of attack in the last two years, and I congratulate you for doing such good work as their leader. Now, however, your decision to settle your new headquarters in Blanc so you may protect the entire Universe has put you in a position of much greater responsibility. You need to be aware of the fact that it's going to be a tough job." –She paused and looked at him seriously. – "I have an important question to ask of you. You may require more help than your present team to protect the universe... if there are others that can be added to your team would you accept them? Would you be able to give them the same trust you have given your team mates?" –She asked watching him closely.

"I think I would be willing to do that. Of course, it would help if it was someone who had battled by my side at least once." –He said quietly. Looking a little puzzled he asked, "Why do you ask?"

"I needed to know if you would be flexible enough. A good leader is able to know his or her limitations and be able to adapt to any changes required to do the job they are given effectively. Personal feelings cannot interfere when you are forced to make decisions that are in the best interests of those under your protection. Your present team might be resentful at the addition of new members. It will be your job to teach your newly enlarged team to work together cohesively and to trust each other explicitly. You have to be able to stand firm on any decision you make even if the feelings of others could be hurt to ensure the safety of the team as a whole." –Zadavia said seriously giving him a warning that she intended to increase his team. – "Of course, I want to ask you to not tell them anything about this, because you're team is still trying to adapt to the changes that are approaching, and I don't want to upset them with another sudden change, at least, not yet. Do you understand?"

"I guess I understand what you're getting at there, Zadavia. This is a bigger job than taking care of just a city. The universe is a big place. So, I promise to try and work with the newcomers you select and make the team even greater than it is already. And about your request, don't worry. I won't tell the others about it." He said equally serious then he changed the subject, "If you need anything, I will be with the rest of the team in Wormhole Central trying to adjust the machine so we can go back to Acmetropolis to pack our things. 'His Feathered Highness' is going with us to make sure that we're able to teleport our headquarters to Blanc in one piece. I'll see you later, Zadavia." Ace said waving farewell as he left closing the door behind him.

After Ace left, Zadavia sighed with relief at his attitude. It was going to be easier than she'd hoped to put her plan into action. She would find six individuals and transform them to be the newest members of the Loonatics. It would be tough, since she needed to find individuals with a pure heart, a determined soul, but also with the spirit of noble fighters. The additional members would help the Loonatics handle their new job and make them the best super team in the Universe. It was the best thing she could do as their former Commander in Chief to ensure her Loonatics could survive without her.

"It's not going to be easy, but it will be well worth it for my piece of mind. This will be my last gift to the Loonatics as their commanding chief and it will be the most special and I think I know where I'll find the first individual, right here in Blanc." –She thought to herself, as she looked once again through the window into the horizon.   
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Who will be the new members of the Loonatics? Will Zadavia succeed in her plan to choose the best of the best? Find out, next in chapter 2: "The First Recruit".


	2. The First Recruit

Chapter 2: The First Recruit

Planet Blanc was known as the center of the Universe, but it was also well known for its complicated labyrinths and secret passages. The entire planet was a massive labyrinth, and there were very few who knew where each of the corridors led.

It was in one of these corridors that Zadavia found the first of her six new recruits. It was where prisoners were kept. The place looked deserted, and a little spooky, because no one, with the exception of the Royal Guards, ever passed through here. Inside a small, dark and smelly jail cell was none other than Sylth Vester, a criminal and a hunter who's life purpose was to catch the Royal Tweetums, ruler of Blanc.

He had caught up to 'His Feathered Highness' and was jailed for capturing him. He was freed by the Loonatics, so he could help them search for Tweetums when he'd been taken. Vester ended up becoming involved with preventing Zadavia's former General Deuce from succeeding in his plan to conquer the universe. But his heroics didn't prevent him from being jailed for accidentally telling Deuce how the Royal Scepter worked and now he was once again, inside the same jail cell. The black and white cat with a red nose paced back and forth in his jail cell floor wondering how he ended up here again. The only light in the cell was provided by a small lamp, which reflected off Sylth's sunglasses, the ones attached to his helmet.

"Just great… I risk one of my nine lives to save the Universe, not to mention the planet of that "yellow canary face", and he locks me up again!" –He growled angrily.

"Maybe he had a reason for doing that, Sylth Vester… or don't you remember that you told my ex-general how to use the Royal Scepter and where the Royal Jewel could be found?" –Zadavia said quietly as she appeared from out of the shadows, surprising Sylth Vester.

"Sufferin' succotash, why do people always do that to me?! People appear from out of nowhere, scaring the life out of me!" –Sylth said still shaking and panting with fright

Zadavia was wearing her usual red and light purple suit. But this time, unlike when she appeared, she had her face hidden by her hood, making her look like an outlaw from the old western movies. When Sylth looked at the figure of his visitor, he immediately recognized her, as the benefactor of the Loonatics, and he was a little bit curious, if not puzzled by her visit.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, but I needed to talk to you, Sylth. Do you think you can spare me a minute of your precious time?" –She said mildly.

"Sure! As you can see, I'm not going anywhere, so be my guest. And by the way, I didn't forget what happened, and I know I almost screwed up everything, when I told that guy about the scepter, but you got to admit that being surrounded by giant robots makes you do stupid things, even if you don't want to do them." –He said in a sorrowful voice, as he moved to stand at the cell bars.

"Look, I know how you feel, locked up in that cell because I was exiled from my home planet. This must be very difficult for you especially after what happened a few days ago. Tell me Sylth, why did you help "my" Loonatics in their battle against Deuce in Wormhole Central?" –She asked softly.

"Well, first I helped them because I saw that as an opportunity of getting out of this cell and also because I had plans to disappear without a trace when I had the first opportunity, but then we found "canary face" and that guy wanted to conquer the galaxy, not to mention the entire Universe…Well... I just saw that as a way to prove that I could be a good guy. You know… I never wanted to be a bad guy, but I was raised like that, and there are some things you can't fight against." –He sighed.

"But tell me… when the battle was over and you told my brother and me that you had also changed, were you telling the truth? Before you answer that, let me tell you, I can sense when someone is hiding or lying about something." –Zadavia warned him while she watched the huge black and white cat through the cell bars closely.

Silence hung heavy over them both for a few minutes. The only thing that both of them could hear was each other's breathing. Zadavia waited patiently for Sylth Vester to think carefully about his answer. She could tell he was taking her seriously when she demanded an honest response.

Finally, he took a breath and said seriously: "Well, I think yes. You see, when I started to fight by the Loonatics side, I felt like I was a part of something special, if you know what I mean. It may sound a little strange coming from a guy who has had an arm injured from getting stuck in a particle accelerator, all his back teeth pulled out, a lack of fur on his belly from being dipped in molecular acid and finally, a severely disfigured face from being sucked into a black hole and on top of all that being given a contract to eliminate a bird that he would suddenly get a chance to do good. But when you finally have the opportunity of proving that you're not as bad as you look or people think you are and you're treated like part of a team, which feels really good. That's why I said I had changed too… Unfortunately for me, that "bird brain" didn't believe me." –Sylth said in irritation, as he contemplated one of his many injuries.

Zadavia was hoping to hear something that proved to her that Sylth Vester wasn't such a bad cat, but she never thought that he would be sincere to the point, of telling her what he felt when he was fighting on the good guys' side. When she heard that confession from him, Zadavia knew that she was right from the beginning about Slyth, and that he would make a fine addition to the team.

She pushed her hood back and revealed her blonde hair and sparkling eyes. Her eyes and warm expression told Sylth that she believed he was sincere and had told the truth. She moved closer to the bars and a small smile appeared.

"I do believe in you, Sylth, and I have a proposition for you…" –She began softly.

"What kind of a proposition, are we talking about?" –He interrupted nervously, suspicious of her.

"You said you felt like you were a part of something special when you fought with the Loonatics. So let me explain what my plans are and your part in them if you choose to be. I don't know if you aware of it, but I'm going back to my home planet to rule as the new queen, but before I go, I want to give a special gift to the Loonatics, to show that they really are very dear to me. That gift will be the addition of some new members for their team. They will help them fight against evil in the galaxy. The proposition I'm making is this... would you like to be the first recruit?" –Zadavia asked him seriously.

"What do I get out of this if I accept your offer? It's nothing personal, but last time I accepted something, I ended up inside the belly of a huge Gossamerian, and it took me a whole week to get out of there." –He said shuddering from the memory.

"First of all, I'll make sure that you get out of this prison and that your criminal record is completely erased… permanently. You'll work with Ace and the rest of the Loonatics, as well as the other new members that I'm going to recruit and of course, you'll receive a set of powers. But you have to behave yourself, because if you don't, I can always find someone who's willing to accept your place. So… are you interested?" –She asked.

"Of course I'm interested! I'll do anything to get out of this place. Tell me, when do I get my set of powers?" –Sylth asked anxiously like a kid with a brand new toy.

Not until I find the other members. Until then, you must honor your part of the deal. You have to be a good cat, stay out of trouble and learn to work with the rest of the team. Remember, I chose you because I sense that you have a good heart and that you have the spirit of a noble warrior inside you. Prove my faith in you!" –She warned him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I still have to find a few more recruits… and don't worry, I gave instructions to the guards to come and release you. They will escort to my lodgings at the palace." –Zadavia said, as she put her hood over her head and disappeared in the shadows.

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Looks like Zadavia made an agreement with Sylth Vester, one of the enemies of the Loonatics, and he accepted her offer of becoming the first new Loonatic… But will she have the same luck with the following recruit, who is in Acmetropolis, to be more precise in Acmetropolis Maximum Security Prison? Find out next in chapter 3: "You're not a such a bad guy…".


	3. You're not such a bad guy

Chapter 3: "You're not such a bad guy…"

Meanwhile, in Wormhole Center, Ace, Lexi and the rest of the Loonatics were preparing to teleport to Acmetropolis. The Royal Tweetums was with them. Since they were going to settle on his planet, he wanted to make sure that everything went according to plan.

The huge room that composed Wormhole Central was covered with hexagonal mirrors and in the middle of it was the "Wormhole Chamber". Once activated it would create a wormhole that would send them to a predetermined destination set by the main computer. The process was safe and fast. It was so fast they would get to the opposite side of the galaxy in a matter of seconds.

"Well, I think that we're all set to go. Is everything ready, Tech?" –Ace asked of the coyote that was programming the "Wormhole Chamber" to send them to their destination.

"Almost ready, Ace. I just need to insert the coordinates and were ready to go. Just make sure that the ship is ready for blast off." –Tech assured him as he continued to punch in information.

"Well, then you better check to see if everything is okay because none of us wants to end up in another galaxy or dimension because it would take a long time to get back. So you better double check or triple check, just to be on the safe side. Did I already tell you all that I'm a little bit nervous? It's not that I'm afraid, but you never know what may happen in this sort of thing…" –Rev chattered at super speed in his nervousness, making the others a bit confused about what he was talking about.

"Blllarrahghggh… Is it dangerous?" –Slam rumbled in that scrambled way he had that didn't resemble anything like English except for an occasional clear word here and there.

"Don't worry, Slam. It's not that bad, in fact, you won't even feel a thing… Don't you remember… we've already travelled through one of those Wormholes before? You'll see that everything is going to be alright." –Lexi said soothingly, trying to calm Slam.

Meanwhile, Royal Tweetums was trying to teach Duck how a knight of the planet Blanc should act in the presence of himself and Duck didn't want to hear him.

"Come on, Sir Duck, you must bow before your king. It is a sign of respect." –Tweetums explained sweetly.

"No way, you "yellow canary"! Danger Duck doesn't bow before anyone, especially you! I'm not going to act as if nothing had happened when I was made prisoner by Deuce because of your decision to give me the Royal Jewel without warning me. I'm through with that!" –Duck exclaimed, crossing his arms across his chest and not looking at Tweetums.

"Ah, come on, Duck… it won't hurt you to show him the proper respect...after all he is king here and you are his knight and besides he's the one responsible for bringing us here to save the universe. He's also helping us bring our headquarters here." –Lexi said cajoling him to behave better.

"Alright… everything is set to go. In T-minus 30 seconds, a wormhole will be created, and we will be on our way to Acmetropolis, so let's get aboard the ship and enjoy the ride!" –Tech interrupted as he pressed the last button then climbed to the launching platform to board the ship. The rest of the team and Royal Tweetums followed him

Suddenly, all the mirrors in the room started to shine as bright as the Sun itself, illuminating everything and making it difficult for all of them to see anything in front of their noses or beaks as they quickly got in and closed the door. If they could have seen anything, they would have noticed something or someone entering the room, jumping up onto the launching platform, quickly opening the door and entering their ship seconds before the wormhole was completed. When the sequence reached the end, the giant wormhole started to spin furiously, and pull them inside.

Ace controlled the ship and directed it through the wormhole. Once inside the wormhole, they started to speed, faster and faster. All the Loonatics tried their best to stabilize their ship, and when they finally got out of the wormhole, they were in Acmetropolis.

It was night and there was a chill in the air. The street lights illuminated the city making it glow softly from space as the Loonatics entered the atmosphere. Ace piloted their ship to their headquarters and as they passed Acmetropolis Maximum Security Prison an alarm went off on the control panel.

"What's happening, Tech?!" –Ace asked in concern, while Tech checked his instruments.

"Hmm...the alarm is for the cargo hold door. It indicates it opened. Possibly it's just a malfunction causing it to pop open when the pressure equalized. Don't worry, I'm going to turn off the alarm and I'll check it out later. In the meantime, would you mind going down there and closing it, Rev?" –Tech announced calmly.

"Sure, Tech, whatever you say… It's done! As you can see, it's already closed!" –Rev reported, talking really fast, as usual.

Rev took only three seconds to go down to the cargo hold and come back to his seat. What he and the others didn't know was they had taken on a stowaway who had jumped from the cargo hold as they passed the prison.

The stowaway was Zadavia. She had secretly jumped aboard their departing ship. She didn't want anyone to know where she was going. She planned on visiting someone in Acmetropolis Prison. She landed on her feet, right in front of the prison door. She identified herself to the guard who was at the entrance and told him that she wanted to talk with the warden. Normally, the guard would just ignore such a request, but knowing who she was, he gave her a visitor's badge so she could enter in the facilities and picked up the phone and called the warden.

The guard explained about Zadavia visiting and that she wanted to see him. The warden instructed the guard to escort her personally to his office. The interior of the prison reminded Zadavia of Blanc's prison where she had been talking with Slyth Vester a few hours before.

When they got to the warden's office, he was the one who opened the door for them. He was an old man, in his sixties. He was bald, but had a big grey moustache and was wearing a dark suit with a red tie. When the guard went back to his post, the warden offered Zadavia a seat then and returned to his chair behind his desk.

"It's unusual to see you here, Lady Zadavia. It's normally your Loonatics who appear delivering one or more super-villains. So, what can I do for you?" –The warden asked curious.

"I need to talk with one of the prisoners, please. This letter will explain everything." –Zadavia said calmly.

She handed an envelope with a letter inside to the warden. He opened it and read the contents. At first he thought what he was reading was a joke because the person she wanted to talk to was one of the biggest criminal masterminds of Acmetropolis. He looked Zadavia in the eyes and could see by her serious face, she was not joking. He shook his head and sighed.

"So you want to talk with this guy, huh? Well, I have to say, he made some progresses with the therapy we've been giving him so he's much more docile than when he first arrived." –He said thoughtfully. –"Very well, you wait here and I'll go and retrieve him. By the way, would you like me to take care of the paperwork so that you can take him with you as you indicated in your letter?" –He asked as he rose from his seat and went for the door.

"Not just yet, warden. I need to make sure he's what I think he is." –Zadavia said mysteriously.

Puzzled the warden left the office leaving Zadavia alone to wait. She was confident that the second recruit would be a nice addition to the team, not only because the Loonatics already knew him, but because he was a brilliant strategist and a skilled manipulator. His schemes were masterpieces of flawless planning. If it weren't for the Loonatics' quick thinking he and his minions would have succeeded.

Finally, less than twenty minutes later, the warden returned accompanied by the prisoner. He was a short looking fellow, dressed in an orange prison uniform, and black sneakers. Zadavia could see that he was really not happy to be there. Zadavia could have chosen any one of the many super villains that were inside this prison; like Mastermind, Massive or even Time Skip, but she decided to recruit this fellow, Pinkster the Pig.

"Here he is, Lady Zadavia, just as you requested but I still don't understand why you want to talk with this pig." –The warden said.

"You can leave us, please. I want to talk with him, alone. Please remove his handcuffs. I am capable of defending myself if there's need." –Zadavia requested while staring into Pinkster's eyes. She wanted to know why the Loonatics, especially Danger Duck trusted him so much. His eyes made him look so innocent, that if she didn't know who he really was, she would say that he was not responsible for any of the acts that he was accused of.

"Very well… now you behave yourself, Pinkster!" –The warden warned the pig as he took the cuffs off and prepared to exit the room.

"D-d-d-don't worry… w-w-warden! I c-c-c-can behave myself in the p-p-p-presence of s-s-someone…of a lady." –Pinkster stuttered to the warden. The warden simply nodded and left them alone.

The Pinkster turned to Zadavia and said: –"W-w-w-well i-i-it's certainly a s-s-s-surprise and a pleasure t-t-to see you, Zadav...Zadav...It's a pleasure to see you ma'am".

"The pleasure is mine, Pinkster. You're probably wondering why I'm here to talk with you, aren't you? Well, have a seat and I'll explain the reason for my visit."

They sat down and the future queen of Freleng laid out her plans for the future protection of the universe. As Pinkster listened, he was, at first, disgusted with the very nature of her purpose but as he heard all the details of Zadavia's plan he grew more interested despite himself. His good side started to overpower his bad side, but this was of course, the result of the hours spent by psychologists trying to get him to express his emotions and to admit that he could do something good for all people.

"So, the great Zadavia wants me to be part of… part of… part of… to become a Loonatic, heh? W-W-Why should I accept?" –Pinkster asked, still a bit suspicious.

"I have chosen you as one of the possible candidates for the job for two reasons, Pinkster. First, because of your intellect… There's no doubt, that you are one of the most brilliant criminals in the city-planet of Acmetropolis, and I think that a mind like yours is ideal in helping the Loonatics come up with strategies and plans to take down the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy. And second, you have already worked with the Loonatics, even if you were trying to manipulate them. You know how they work and you are close to one of them. Even if you don't like to work for the benefit of the galaxy and of the Universe, I think this beats being here, locked up in a cell with your two stupid minions. But, think about it for a few minutes. You don't have to answer right away." –Zadavia said patiently.

Pinkster got out of his seat and started to walk in circles around the room with his right hand over his jaw. His eyes made him look like if he was some kind of an emotionless android. In his head, the ideas and thoughts started to form an opinion about the proposition.

If he accepted, he would be free and he would never have to see his stupid minions, Stoney and Bugsy again. It was their fault they were inside the prison. He would be able to use his intellect for something much grander than just finding a way to get out of there.

He also blamed Ace for getting him arrested but if he was honest with himself it was really his own fault he got busted because he wasn't able to hide the evidences of his crimes. If he accepted the offer, he would at least have a place to stay and he could spent sometime with his old friend Danger Duck, who never stopped believing that he could change. Finally, he came to a decision; he stopped in front of Zadavia and put out one hand.

"I would be v-v-very… I would be v-v-very… I would be v-v-very… It would be an honour to work with the Loonatics, Zadavia." –He said a smile on his face.

Zadavia returned his smile and shook his hand sealing the agreement. She was very happy that Pinkster accepted her proposal. The warden, who had been eavesdropping outside the door, was shocked by what he'd heard. He re-entered his office and asked Zadavia if she was sure about this but she reassured him by saying she had the power to know when a person was lying or hiding something. She told him that Pinkster was sincere when he accepted the proposal

He sighed then drew up the papers for Pinkster's release. After signing the papers that granted him his freedom, Pinkster went to change from his prison uniform to regular clothes, a blue and red suit, along with red gravity boots, so he wouldn't look like a convict who escaped.

Once outside, Pinkster smelled the fresh air and felt like he had been reborn. In fact, he had never felt so good about any thing before. When he passed through the prison doors to the outside, he left his other life, a life of crime and lies, behind him. Zadavia told him, that before they could go back to Blanc, they had to find a few more recruits, and they were going to do it tonight. He nodded his agreement and followed her into the night.

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Until know, Zadavia found two recruits, but there's still more to come… After all this excitement, of stowaways, evil criminals turning good guys, and the Loonatics preparing to teleport their huge HQ to planet Blanc, I think that we all need a break and a cup of coffee, in a special café, not far from "Loonatics Tower"… But what has this café that makes us want to investigate what's happening there? Find out in chapter 4: "The Tale of the Cat and of the Skunk".


	4. The Tale of the Cat and of the Skunk

Chapter 4: The Tale of the Cat and Skunk.

Meanwhile, in the centre of Acmetropolis, on the 125th floor of the "Loonatics Tower," Ace and his team, along with Tweetums were starting to pack things up. Everything was going well, until they heard a scream from the laboratory. Tech E. Coyote was standing, devastated, over one of his inventions. He'd apparently broke it while trying to pack it carefully. He was so upset that not even Ace was able to think of a way to calm him down.

"Aw gee, Tech! I'm sorry that happened. Look! You need to take a break...calm down. You're so stressed you're making mistakes. You're going to give yourself a heart attack." –Ace tried to soothe their genius member.

"How can I be calm, Ace?! I spent almost a month developing that "Electro-Proton Eliminator 39X" and now it's ruined! If there's anything worst than not being able to develop a weapon or a gadget, it's breaking it before you even get to test it!" –Tech snapped in exasperation.

"Tech… you built it...you can fix it. If there's someone who can fix anything, that someone is you! That's the genius you are! Now relax... calm yourself!" –Lexi urged him in a gentle voice, as she passed her hands over Tech's face, making him feel a little better about himself.

"You're right… I know I can fix it, but it's so hard to build things and then break them by accident. Anyway, I have to focus on how we're going to transfer the building to Blanc without damaging it." –He sighed getting to the real concern distracting him.

"And how are you going to do that, "braniac", hmm?! It's not that I don't have any faith in you, but how are you going to transfer a building as tall as this one to a planet that is millions and millions of light-years away from here?" –Danger Duck asked, not able to withhold his sarcasm as he looked at himself in a pocket mirror in his left hand while his right held Tweetums, who was thoroughly enjoying his tour around the Loonatics Tower.

"Well, it is really very simple, Duck. You see I created a powerful magnet that will use the energy of the fusion chamber, which provides energy to the tower itself to move the building. Try to imagine a giant magnet that creates a magnetic field around the infrastructure of the building, levitating it and making it possible to be transported through the wormhole and put anywhere you want. I called it, the "Magna Transportation Field, or "MTF" for short." –Tech said proudly.

He showed them the prototype of the MTF on one of the many computers in the laboratory. "Rev is down at the base of the tower assembling it and Slam is helping him with the heavier pieces of equipment. At Rev's velocity, I would say that it's just a matter of hours before it's completed." –Tech told them while patting himself on the back for thinking of it. He turned to the video wall comm. and contacted Rev, "How are things going down there, Rev?" 

"Just fine! We've almost finished putting the magnetic stabilizer in the titanium infrastructure and were about to connect it to the power grid, which will be very dangerous, since we can't turn it off, you know? And while I do that, Slam is going to make sure that the pulse quarks system is connected to the positron energy quartz, which will serve as one of the three units that will transfer the energy from the fusion chamber of the building and convert it into an energy pulse. We still have a lot of work to do, but I would say that in two hours and thirty-seven minutes and twelve seconds it'll be finished, that is of course if we don't take any breaks, but if we do then it will take us about…" –Rev reported in his rapid, hyper-speed voice.

"Slow down there, Rev… I think we got the message. Take all the time you need because we aren't in a rush you know? Once you're finished, call me, because I want to inspect everything. Remember to follow my plans to the letter. I don't want to dismantle everything and put it back again because you or Slam forgot to put a safety ring somewhere, ok?" –Tech warned ensuring they understood the importance of taking it one step at a time.

"Blarahashagh… Don't worry." –Slam assured him in his scrambled language. The comm. blinked off.

"I just hope those two know what they're doing. I don't want to explode while I'm in a wormhole, especially when all my stuff is inside this building." –Duck muttered worriedly.

"Come on, sir Duck! You told me you would give me a guided tour through your headquarters. So far the only places little ole me has seen were your room and this lab" –Tweetums said impatiently.

"Hold your feathers bird! I already told you I would give you a guided tour and I will but you have to be patient." –Duck said as they entered the elevator. –"And one more thing, you're despicable, did you know that?"

"It's not my fault I'm only three and half parsec old. I'm supposed to be like that." –Tweetums answered in his usual cheerful voice as the elevator doors closed on them.

"Let's just leave those two birds to enjoy themselves. In the meantime, let's pack a few more things, Lexi." –Ace said. She nodded and the two of them returned to what they'd been doing.

While Rev and Slam worked to complete the task that Tech gave them, and Duck entertained the Royal Tweetums, a few blocks away from the Loonatics Tower, in a fast food restaurant called "Golden Burger," something odd was about to happen.

A she-cat had just accidentally dropped one king-size beer onto a customer. The customer was presently complaining about her to the manager. The she-cat was one Patricia Pussycat, a tall, slim, black and white cat, with blue eyes and a black nose. She had an unusual characteristic, her tail was bisected with a broad white stripe making her look like a skunk...sometimes being mistaken for one. She was dressed in a uniform provided for employees, composed of a red jacket (that had a small name tag) with matching mini-skirt and blue high-heel shoes.

Being mistaken for a skunk didn't bother her because her best friend was a real skunk. Her friend was standing by her side as usual. Mimi Le Pew knew the manager was going to yell at Patricia again. Mimi was the usual black and white skunk. She was a bit taller than her friend, with a beautiful long and fluffy tail, and wearing the same uniform as her feline friend. Unlike most skunks, Mimi didn't stink because she had thoroughly covered herself with a lot of perfume. She was nice and friendly, but if anyone around her was hurt physically and or psychologically, she'd retaliate with her main weapon without hesitation.

Patricia, on the other hand was normally a shy cat, but if someone pissed her off she would become very fiery tempered and wouldn't hesitate to say what was on her mind but this didn't happen often.

The pair had several things in common. Their quiet, even tempers (except when others or themselves were bullied), possessing a French accent and being sisters by adoption. A kindly old woman, who was single, had adopted both girls. She had always wanted daughters. She raised the pair until her death. Unfortunately, the woman was poor and was unable to leave anything for the girls so they had to learn to survive on their own. On her dying bed, she made the girls promise to stick together and help each other, no matter what. And right now, they needed to stick together, more than ever. 

When both of them saw the manager finish with the irate customer and stride angrily toward them, they stood still, holding each other's hand and readied themselves for his tirade. They were used to his complaints about their shortcomings. Each time he berated them he made it sound worse than the last time. He was a fat guy with a little nose and black eyebrows, which matched his dark-brown eyes. It seemed like he was always angry with everyone, even with himself. He was always laying the blame on everyone for whatever was happening, even when the persons were blameless and couldn't have had anything to do with it.

"You bloody incompetent! That's the fourth time this week that you've done that to a customer. Thanks to you, we just lost one more client to the competition!" –He yelled furiously at her.

"I'm sorry! It was an accident, sir. I swear that it will never happen again." –Patricia said, in a shy and tiny voice, as if afraid of him even though he was shorter than her.

"You've said that before on all the other times you've been clumsy. What makes it worse this time is the fact that he was one of our best customers. Thanks to you, he won't be coming back! This time it's going to come out of your pay." –He snapped harshly then turned his irate gaze on the skunk standing there. –"What are you looking at, you perfumed skunk?!" –He snarled at Mimi, who was staring at him with angry eyes.

"She said she was sorry! Why do you have to yell at her like that, huh? What do you have against us? Better still, what do you have against everyone who works here? What have we done to you to makes you so furious all the time?!" –Mimi demanded, glaring at the man.

He reared back stunned for a moment at her temerity. Shocked silence fell and for several long moments, no one said anything. The girls thought the conversation was over but the manager turned red with fury and exploded like a volcano launching into a rant.

"How dare you speak to me that way after all I've done for you? I gave you this job because your adopted mother was a friend of my mother and because she made me promise I would give you a job after your mom died. This is the gratitude you show me?" –He screeched.

"And we're supposed to be grateful for that every single day especially when you rub our noses in it? This job stinks! We're expected to clean this place from top to bottom, everyday, and worse, we have to serve each customer as if they were some kind of royalty and for all that we get treated like dirt by you and barely paid enough to live on. Well you can keep this job... we've had it! We don't need your pity, you know? And one more thing, you're one stupid, egomaniac and selfish bastard, who sucks the life out of the people who work here! Just ask anyone and they will say the same thing if they had the courage!" –Mimi yelled back angrily. 

"That's it! That is the last straw… You're fired, you bloody skunk! Get your tail right off my establishment, before I…" –He bellowed. 

"Before what, huh? She just told you we were quitting, you bonehead?! Do you think we're afraid of you, you big pot of lard?!" –Patricia snarled finally getting angry too.

"Get out of here before I kick you out of here… You're both fired! Get out of my establishment, before I call the police and make them arrest you!" –He hissed pointing at the front door. –"I knew I shouldn't have made that promise to my mother! You're nothing but a pair of freaks!" –He said, his voice dripping with disgust.

"Don't you dare to call us that!" –Mimi yelled angrily, as she slapped the manager of the restaurant in the face knocking him to the floor. –"We are what we are, and we're proud to be who we are, and there's nothing you can say that changes that! Besides, we don't need this job! Let's go, Patricia, let's get out of this hole!"

Both sisters ripped off their name tags and threw them at the manager's face, who cowering on the floor, shocked and afraid of the skunk. They walked out of the restaurant; slamming the door with so much strength that it nearly broke the glass.

Patricia and Mimi walked briskly down the street until they were some distance away. Patricia finally stopped and began to cry. Mimi hugged her and tried to tell her that everything was going to be alright. She looked around for a place where they could sit down for bit and calm down. Finally, she spotted a bench in the middle of a small garden. She tugged the cat toward it and they sat down. Mimi held onto Patricia offering as much comfort as she could while Patricia cried.

"What are we…sniff... going to do now, Mimi…sniff? We lost our only job…sniff…and worse…sniff, we don't have enough money to…sniff… pay the rent! We're so…sniff… doomed…sniff!" –She moaned in anguish.

"Don't worry, Patricia. I know things are bad but you'll see ... we will find a way to set things right." –Mimi said positively, comforting Patricia, as she hugged her and gave her a big kiss on her left cheek, making her feel a little better.

"Maybe I can help you!" –Said a soft voice from behind them. –"Don't be afraid! We're friends and we would like to talk to you, if you don't mind. I know that this may not be the best time but what I have to say to you is very important." –The voice softly continued as Mimi and Patricia turned around to look.

The voice that they heard was from someone who appeared from behind the bushes. At first they though that it might be a burglar, or even worse. But as Zadavia came into the open and lowered her hood they recognized her from the television being interviewed with the Loonatics.

As the woman came closer they saw another figure behind her. It was Pinkster. They recognized him as well, as a notorious criminal. They were suddenly afraid and shrank back away from the approaching pair.

"It's alright girls. Pinkster is on the side of good now and I was not joking about the proposition I wish to offer you." –Zadavia told the girls soothingly adding a bit of calming power to relax the girls so that they would be willing to listen to her. When the skunk and the cat relaxed, she explained what her plans were and how they were involved.

Both girls listened carefully to what the blonde woman had to say. They were still a little shaken by their nasty fight with their former boss so it took them a little while to absorb what the woman was telling them. What she was offering sounded too good to be true but they knew Zadavia's reputation. After looking at each other for a moment and seeing a perfect agreement in each other's eyes they turned as one toward the blond woman and accepted her proposal. 

"We don't know how to thank you for this opportunity that you're giving me and my sister, Lady Zadavia." –Mimi said softly, who had tears of gratitude running down her face.

"Don't thank me, Mimi. You have only yourselves to thank. Pinkster and I observed what happened in the restaurant, and for just a moment I feared we might have to interfere, but then, you two proved that I was right. I have been watching you for some time now. As I told you, the Loonatics need fresh talent and more females to the mix and you and your sister are perfect for the job." –Zadavia said warmly. The sisters jumped up and gave her a huge hug.

Watching the emotional scene, Pinkster was reminded of the close friendship he and Duck had when they were kids. It made him regret all the bad things he'd done as a criminal. All that emotion had him dropping a few tears as well but he wiped them away quickly not wanting anyone to see him cry. He stepped forward and congratulated Patricia and Mimi, telling them that they would be partners.

"Welcome to the Loonatics!" –Zadavia said smiling. –"Now, we have one more recruit we need to see on the other side Acmetropolis. Let us be off! She told them and took off at a brisk pace. The others followed after her wondering who the last recruit could be.

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Not bad… Two more recruits, recruited… Only one to go, but who could he or she be? Find out when we reach the discos on Acmetropolis, in the fifth chapter "The little dancing devil from Mexicool!"


	5. The Singing Little Devil of Mexicool

Well, before we continue with today's story, I have something to tell you. Our colleague here in Ulyferal has been giving me some help in the revision of the chapters of this story, and if any of you needs help from her, just let her know that she will be very happy to help you with your own stories. Once again, I thank you Ulyferal, for helping me…

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Chapter 5: The Singing Little Devil of Mexicool

They took the subway to the West side of Acmetropolis. Zadavia's companions were surprised and puzzled to find themselves in the part of the city known as the "Night Zone". This district was famous for its restaurants and discos. The most popular club in the district was the Mexicool Paradise. Its main attraction was an amazing dancer capable of dancing all night long.

It was this club that Zadavia led her companions. Stepping inside they were bombarded with the club's characteristic motif of the planet Mexicool in the Siesta Galaxy. The walls were covered in sombreros, colourful handmade serapes and small palm trees floating on gravitational platforms all around the place. The walls were painted with vivid colours that represented the spectrum of the two suns of Mexicool… The Mexicoolians were a peaceful and gentle people, well known for their spicy food, their culture, their wonderful songs, and their big fiestas where big piñatas filled with treats were a hit with children. But the greatest thing they were known for was their speed. As a race they were capable of moving at great speeds without the need of vehicles.

They found a table and sat down. A waitress appeared and asked them what they wanted to have. Zadavia requested a glass of water, Pinkster asked for a "mojito", and Mimi and Patricia, asked for glasses of milk. The three new recruits of the Loonatics had no idea who Zadavia was looking for, especially in a club like this one. At first, no one felt comfortable enough to ask her who they were here to find but finally Mimi plucked up her courage. 

"Uhm...Zadavia? This seems like an odd place for your next recruit. You're going to let us in on who we're looking for?" –She asked hesitantly. 

Zadavia answered, her face showing mild amusement, "Our last recruit works here. You'll have the pleasure of meeting him after his act."

"A-A-Act? W-w-what do you m-m-mean? Is he a… Is he a… Is he a… What's his occupation here?" –Pinkster asked in surprise, as the waitress arrived with their drinks.

"He's a singer, and a good one, I have to admit … it was tough to choose him from a great number of people with special abilities. But he has a nice voice and his ability... well you'll see that soon enough. His name is Swift Gonzalez, the greatest singing mouse on the planet Mexicool." –Zadavia explained. "Ah and here he comes now..." She said pointing to the stage at the center of the club.

The first thing they noticed was how small he was. He was only a little taller than Royal Tweetums, with light brown fur and very large round ears that looked nearly bigger than his head. He was dressed in a black poncho, a pair of black trousers and wearing a yellow sombrero on his head.

Once he started to sing conversation ceased and all eyes were on him in rapt attention. He had a Spanish accent, which sounded melodic, if not hypnotizing. It was hard to believe such a small and humble creature could have so beautiful a voice. He was a great success on his home planet and had decided to become the best singer in the universe. So he went out on tour, his first stop was Acmetropolis.

Unfortunately, his dreams were about to be derailed. He had no idea that destiny had reserved a different kind of future for him. When he finished, everyone clapped their hands, congratulating him for that wonderful song. The waitress that had served Zadavia's table stepped up to Swift and told him that some people wanted to speak with him. She pointed out the table.

When he saw who was sitting there he turned back to his audience, "Ola good people. I need to take a short break. Do not worry I'll return in moments. Thank you for your patience." –Swift said then walked off the stage and toward Zadavia's table. He thought they just wanted an autograph. When he reached their table he used a nearby chair to hop up onto the table so that they could see him easier.

He saluted all of them in a joyful way and in a cheerful voice he said, "It is a pleasure to meet you all, amigos. What can I do for you, Senorita Zadavia? Do you all want an autograph, is that it? If so, don't worry, Swift Gonzalez well give you all one…" –He said in rapid fire fashion in his melodic voice. He could almost give Rev a race in the fast talking business.

"No, though after our conversation we would like to have an autograph, Swift, but what we are here to discuss is a proposition for you." –Zadavia said with a smile.

"Arriba!!! Finally, someone appreciates my talent and wishes to become my musical agent… Where do I sign?!" –Swift said excitedly. 

"Hold on, Swift. The proposition has nothing to do with music, I'm sorry. What I need to discuss with you will take your life into a totally new direction. Please hear me out, I promise I won't take too much of your time since you do have a show to finish." –She said gently. She took a sip of her water while she waited for him to settle down and listen.

"Oh... very well… then, if you don't mind, I think I'll have a drink too, because Swift Gonzalez never discusses propositions or politics, without a mojito and a cheese sandwich." –He said. He signalled one of the waitresses –"Katy! Bring me my evening supper, por favor!" –He told her while he winked at one of the other waitresses that was serving the customers at the bar.

The group waited patiently for Swift's meal to be brought to him. As he was eating, Zadavia explained her proposition. The others gave their inputs on just how important the job was and why they were joining themselves.

Swift finished his meal and eyed them uncertainly. It all sounded like a wonderful thing. Being a super hero would certainly get him noticed but what of his musical aspirations. It had always been his dream to be the greatest singer in the known universe and by extension show how wonderful his world's music was. As a hero, he wouldn't have any time to do that.

"Your offer is very generous, but I cannot accept it. You see, singing is mi ensue... my dream, if I become a member of the Loonatics I would have no time to sing and that is my life's ambition." –He said in a sad voice. The opportunity to be a hero and do some good in the universe was very tempting, but he had worked so hard to get where he was now... to throw that all away... no out of the question.

"If that is your decision, then, I'm sorry if I wasted your time, Swift. I hope that you have a brilliant career and that you achieve all of your dreams and aspirations…" –Zadavia began, when she was interrupted by a huge explosion that blew a hole in a wall near them.

A lot of smoke came out of the hole setting off the fire alarm and sprinklers wetting all the patrons. People began yelling and screaming heading for the doors meanwhile through the hole a huge menacing android appeared. It was made of some kind of green metal and looked sort of like an upright canine. His red eyes searched the room terrifying the patrons even more than the alarms causing a stampede for the doors.

The force of the explosion had knocked Zadavia and her Loonatic recruits along with Swift unconscious. Their bodies were hidden by thrown tables. Regaining alertness, Zadavia discovered her left hand had been broken by a table slamming down on it. She checked the others and was relieved to find they were alright. Unfortunately, she was in no real condition to fight, the pain was intense but she controlled it.

"Target acquired… commence capture procedures." –A cold robotic voice intoned. It climbed through the hold into the room. Fortunately, all the patrons and workers had all escaped leaving only the small group of would be defenders behind to face the weird looking android. 

Looking around to find a way to defend themselves and take out the android, Pinkster was the first to have an inkling of an idea. He saw that an electric cable had been ripped from the wall and was hanging in the air sparking. His brow furrowing he came up with a strategy to take out the android.

While they were thinking about what to do next, the android was breaking and shattering everything that was in its path. His head turned left and right, making a peculiar noise as it began moving toward some unknown part of the restaurant after its target.

"L-L-Listen up, guys! I-I-I have an idea how we can s-s-s-stop that andro… andro… andro… to stop that thing. But I'm going to n-n-need your help. S-S-Someone needs to go out there and create an… create an… create an… to distract it, while I sneak over ttto that wall and p-p-p-pull that cable toward it and hopefully elec… elec… elec… to make it short-circuit. M-M-Make it c-c-come towards m-m-me, u-u-understand?" Pinkster hissed softly to the others then turned to Zadavia. "S-S-S-Stay here, Z-Z-Z-Zadavia!" –He told her.

Everyone nodded grimly and got ready to do their part in the Pinkster's plan. Mimi and Penelope, who had a few gymnastic skills jumped into the air, giving mortals and spins in the air, avoiding the laser the android started to shoot them with. Swift, who didn't know exactly what to do, started to sing as loudly as he could, to capture the android's attention.

The android was a lot faster than they expected. He swung one of his metal arms and knocked Mimi out of the air sending her slamming to the ground. Patricia was furious as she landed on her feet near a counter of trays and plates. She launched them at the thing like frisbees. It didn't harm it but it did distract and confuse it some.

"Nobody hurts my sister, and gets away with it!" –She snarled. "Take that you piece of scrap metal" –She shouted sending even more dishware at it before running out of ammo. When Swift sang even louder, the confused android turned away from the angry cat. Patricia went to Mimi's side to check her pulse. She was relieved to discover that her sister was only knocked out.

As the android approached him, Swift jeered and laughed in its face, "Hey, don't you think that you should pick on someone your own size, Señor Robot?"

The android, which had specific orders to capture one target that was still inside the restaurant had orders to not be stopped by anything so it had to get rid of these creatures preventing it from completing its orders. He aimed his weapon at Swift only to find its target had moved so rapidly that its targeting computer was having difficulty pinning the mouse down. Swift raced around and hopped up and down like a kangaroo so fast that the android was frozen in momentary computer knots. Its lasers fired everywhere but kept missing Swift by seconds.

"Arriba! Andale, andale, andale… Arriba! Don't tell me, that you are that slow?! Andale, even mi Madre is faster than you!" Swift yipped distractedly.

Once Patricia saw that Mimi was alright, she placed her behind a counter for safety then rejoined the battle. Joining forces with Swift, they made the android follow them leading it toward the waiting Pinkster and the electric cable he held carefully in his hands.

When they got him close enough, Pinkster told them to get down, and threw the sparkling electrical cable at the android. It touched its body and it made it dance jerkily in place. Sparks began to fly from its shaking form then tendrils of smoke came from its head and seconds later it blew up spraying its parts all over the place. Silence fell as they moved closer to the wreckage of the android. Patricia kicked its melted head. From behind the counter came the somewhat shaky Mimi. She walked up behind them and stared down at the remnants of her attacker.

"Stupid piece of scrap metal!" –Patricia spat then asked, "What the heck did it want, anyway?" –She asked no one in particular. 

"That is hard to say since we don't know what or who it was looking forward. Remember, when it came through the wall it said it had acquired a target. I don't believe it was one of us so someone here was its target. Unfortunately, whoever made this thing will know soon that it failed and may try again. I have to get back to Blanc, and you're coming with me. If a new threat is about to show up, I think that the Loonatics, all of them need to be together, trained and ready for whatever it is. Besides, I think that we should take the android's head with us, to see if Tech can find out something about it." –She said, while Mimi picked up the melted android's head. "Let us go. I've asked my brother for a lift. Follow me." –Zadavia said urgently and led the way out of the restaurant.

Swift raced in front of them and held up a hand, "Mi amigos, is that offer still good? I find with the destruction of the restaurant I am without a job and no place else to go." –He said anxiously. 

"Of course it is and welcome, Swift. You proved just how useful you can be. Now, please we must hurry. I am anxious to present you to the rest of the Loonatics and get to the bottom of this mystery. Come on... we have a ride to catch." –She smiled and hurried out the door cradling her damaged wrist against her chest with her other hand.


	6. Returning To Blanc

Chapter 6: Returning to Blanc 

As Zadavia and her new Loonatics departed the former "Mexicool Paradise Club," a crowd had formed after the spectacular attack and was staring at them. Those that recognized Zadavia and Pinkster tried to get answers on what had happened, pressing close to the group that was trying to leave the area. 

Sighing in mild annoyance, Zadavia levitated her small group so that they could escape the confusion. As they quickly moved off above the crowd, a figure hidden by complete darkness with only his hands visible holding a pair of binoculars watched them depart with a measure of anger.

Having Zadavia and some new heroes in her wake upset his plans badly especially with his target so close had infuriated him.

"Rats… I was so close! Where the heck did they come from ...blast it! No matter, I will get you later… nobody makes a fool out of me...it's not you who's going to start…", the mysterious stranger's rant to himself was interrupted by his communicator.

"Yes," he answered irritably.

"Were you successful in your mission, my dear minion?" A cold voice asked.

"No, an unexpected disruption ruined my plans but don't worry, I never miss twice. Next time I'll succeed, you can trust me." He growled.

"You better not fail again! The last one that failed me, regret it for the last of his pathetic and miserable life… I have already lost too much time with this plan of mine. Remember, I need to get out of here, along with a few friends of mine, so we can have a special party for a rabbit and his friends."

"That's just it; I think that the Loonatics benefactor is up to something… I think that she's gathering a few more members for the Loonatics. Who they are, I don't know exactly, with the exception of one of them being Pinkster Pig." The shadowy figure warned.

"Try to find out more about what's going on, but first, get me out of here!!! I want to be out of this place as soon as possible, you "buzz-brain"!" The furious voice of his leader snarled.

"Don't worry! I will get you out of there soon. I just need to pick up some reinforcements and a couple more androids." The shadowy figure soothed his leader then turned off his communicator.

Meanwhile, back in the Loonatics Tower, the "Magna Transportation Field" had been completed and, after a close inspection by Tech, was given the go ahead for take off and while Rev, Slam and Tech worked on Tech's new gadget, Ace and Lexi finished packing everything that needed to be packed. 

Duck had been giving Tweetums a guided tour to the entire tower and was getting a jumbo sized headache from listening to Tweetums lectures.

"I really need an aspirin… with all the medical research and advancements they've made throughout the centuries, they still haven't found a way to prevent a simple headache." Duck groaned as he swallowed two aspirins with a glass of water.

"You're telling us that you have a huge headache because you showed the tower to "His Feathered Highness", Duck?" Ace asked in amusement as he helped Lexi carry a few encyclopedias and put them in a box.

"I'm not having a headache because of that… I have a headache because of being forced to listen to that bird go on and on, not to mention having to search for him every time he disappeared on me. If I knew that being a royal knight for that bird was this tough, I would have never accepted the job." Duck snapped. He stormed off to his room to take a little nap.

A few more hours later and they finally finished all the preparations for take off. They were now ready to leave for Blanc, leaving their old city-planet behind in pursuit of new and exciting adventures that would lead them to the most unimaginable places in the Universe.

"So I guess were as ready as we are going to be. What's next?" Lexi asked.

"Just as soon as Tech activates the "MTF" we will be on our way to Blanc. The Wormhole Central was programmed before we left to activate itself, when we were ready to go back, creating a new wormhole that will transport us." Ace reminded her.

"This is really going to be a great journey… Don't you think so, Sir Duck?" Tweetums spoke in his squeeky voice.

"Don't bet all your feathers on that! This journey is going to be as fast as the last one, and thank God for that! I was already getting fed up of all these changes, from planet to planet…" Duck answered sighing, showing a bit more patience than his wont.

"Very well, since were all set! Let's start the countdown… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition!" Tech counted down calmly as he pressed the button to activate the "MTF."

Once the MTF started to work, the entire building levitated itself a couple of meters off the ground, then a green translucent sphere formed itself all around the building, making it look like a ship inside a bottle. The sphere with the Loonatics Tower started to move slowly from the surface of Acmetropolis. It took them almost ten minutes to get to the mesosphere, where a wormhole suddenly appeared… It was their ticket back to Blanc. The wormhole seemed a lot bigger than the one they arrived in earlier that night, but they didn't even notice that… They were rather occupied with the screens that indicated their current position and the state of the MTF.

The only one not paying attention was the Royal Tweetums, who was enjoying a book that Ace had given him about art. As soon as the building got caught into the wormhole, they turned the autopilot on and decided to enjoy the ride.

Just ahead of the soon arriving wormhole with the Loonatics Tower, Zadavia and the new recruits for the Loonatics stepped off Optimatus's ship that had given them a lift. Optimatus was very pleased to see his sister so soon after her departure. During their voyage, she and her brother discussed her plan for adding more members to the Loonatics team. He thought it was a good plan on her part and was introduced to her newly selected members.

Now as she was leaving his ship, she turned and said, "Thanks once again for the lift, Optimatus."

"It was my pleasure, dear sister! If you ever need anything, you know where to find me. Take care of that wrist of yours… Oh, and before I leave, I have a question for you. Tell me, are you sure "your" Loonatics are going to be able to adapt to having new partners? I'm surprised you hadn't chosen Deuce to be one of the recruits. I don't have anything against who you have chosen, but you have to admit that having two ex-criminals in the team is kinda unusual. Why did you choose them?" Optimatus asked curiously.

"I felt they all have good and strong hearts, unlike Deuce. Believe me, I would never choose him, even if my life depended on it. But you will see how well I've chosen my new champions. For now, good-bye my brother. Don't worry about me so much." She said with a warm smile.

He smiled back then closed the ship's door and was soon airborne and out of sight.

She had arrived ahead of her Loonatics because she needed to brief her recruits on what was to happen now that they were in Blanc. She lead them to the Royal Palace taking them to her personal lodgings within. Sylth Vester was waiting for her. As they entered her quarters they could see that Sylth had made himself at home. He'd ordered a few things from the kitchen staff. There were several empty plates on the table and he was just finishing a huge chocolate sundae with vanilla cream and Plutarkian raspberries. A sardine was on top instead of a cherry.

As they walked into the room, he put down the dish on the table and jumped to his feet and saluted Zadavia. She nodded warmly at him. He continued to stand as they all moved into the room.

"I see you decided to have a little snack, Sylth…" She said in mild amusement.

"I-I-I was hungry. I hope you don't mind that I used your name when I made these orders to the kitchen, but I haven't had a decent meal in a very long time. The food in the prison is terrible." He stuttered a bit nervously, afraid he had done something wrong.

"No that's fine, I understand." Zadavia assured him. "Alright, I need all your attention for the next little while. The Loonatics will be arriving very soon and I need to discuss what is expected of you. If you'll all take a seat so that we may start..." She instructed taking a seat herself.

All of them sat on the chairs that were around the circular table. Sylth continued to eat his ice cream. Patricia sat next to him trying to snatch a bite from it when he wasn't looking.

Zadavia placed her wrist carefully in her lap so that it wouldn't get bumped. It throbbed painfully but she ignored it. She would have it taken care of later. She didn't have much time to get them ready for what was to come

"As you all know, you were selected to be additional members of the Loonatics. At the beginning, some of you were quite skeptical about the proposition I offered you, but you came anyway. I appreciate your patience and now I'll explain my plan more fully." She studied them a moment, holding their eyes before continuing.

"The Loonatics are facing new challenges by moving their headquarters to Blanc. Being responsible for being the defenders of the known universe is going to be a tough job. It's a vast place to guard and they will be pushed to their limits to protect it. That is where you come in. You were chosen to provide a support system for them. There are new evils out there and they are not truly prepared to face them as yet. With the addition of your skills, you will be able to help balance the powers of the team and help them overcome the difficulties they will soon face.

"B-B-But won't the other… the other… the other… the remaining team be surprised to see us? F-F-From what you've t-told us, they don't… they don't… they don't… they have no idea that you're doing this… Am I r-r-right?" Pinkster asked in concern.

"Yes! Only Ace and I know of this plan, but not even he is aware of who the new members are. I don't know how they will react when they see you, but I have faith in Ace and on his leadership capabilities. It is he who will make the rest of the team understand the reasons for why I'm doing this." She assured them.

"Um...when are they expected to arrive? Also, if it's not too much to ask, when do we receive our powers?" Patricia asked shyly, while she ate one of the Plutarkian raspberries off Sylth's ice-cream.

Looking up at a clock on the wall, she said, "They should be arriving any time now. As soon as their headquarters has settled into place, I want to introduce you to them. As for your powers, Tech will help me with that. First, however, I need him to check over the head of that android that had attacked the club and try to determine where it might have come from." She answered.

As she looked out the window and saw the wormhole open in the sky, she said, "My friends, you are now a part of the Loonatics Team so prepare yourself for what's coming."


	7. First Impressions and a Clue

Chapter 7: First Impressions and a Clue.

When the Loonatics Tower popped out of the wormhole and entered into the atmosphere, Tech took the controls and had Rev be his co-pilot so that the landing to the designated spot Tweetums had given them would be smooth and perfect.

"Alright, Rev, turn 34 degrees starboard and maintain it. I want to have a nice and smooth landing."

"You got it, Tech! This landing is going to be as smooth as silk, easy as pie, no errors here, cause that would be bad, horrendous, just as landing on the wrong spot would be terrible, and bad for our reputation, all those people would be upset with us…" Rev rattled on in his hyper-speed mode, as he gave orders to the computer. 

"Slow it down, Rev! I've got it, just focus on what you're doing, ok?" Tech said calmly, trying to get Rev to slow down his rhythm a little bit.

"Yeah, yeah, right! You got it Tech!" Rev said a little slower.

The tower slowly turned starboard and aligned itself with the course that had been laid in. Hovering just above the city they moved their headquarters slowly toward its new home. The space for their building was a large area of barren land beyond the city and surrounded by fields of flowers. 

Lexi contemplated the scenery of their new home. It somehow reminded her of the island where she had discovered her ability to manipulate plant life. It was also the place where she helped a civilization that had been misunderstood by all, even her at first. Sighing to herself, she brought her mind back to the present and paid attention to the ground below her. The land their headquarters was to be placed on was a section of the palace gardens. In the distance could be seen the palace itself.

The computer beeped informing them they had arrived at their destination. The building hovered over its new site awaiting further orders. 

"Ok, time to turn off "MTF", do it really slowly, Slam." Tech warned the Tasmanian over the comm.

"Bllarhaghahahahgh… Right, Tech!" Slam responded in his scrambled language.

As soon as Slam turned off the "MTF", the building bounced a little then started its slow descent. As a matter of fact, the descent was so slow Ace doubted they were really moving at all.

"Are you sure that were even moving down, Tech?"

"Of course we are, Ace. You're just not feeling it because the magnet takes some time to shut down, and of course, we don't want to fall like a rock do we? But don't worry; the process of landing will be completed in about ten minutes." He reassured Ace.

Ten minutes, as Tech had said, the tower finally hit the ground causing it to tremble a bit then finally settled and stilled. They were finally here. It had been really nice of Tweetums to let them install their headquarters in his gardens. It was the perfect place with a marvellous view. 

Now that they were here, the team conducted systems checks to insure nothing had been damaged or jarred during the trip and landing. When everything checked out, they decided to take a much needed break.Going into the living area, they split up to pursue their own interests. Ace and Duck decided to turn on the television, and see the news. Lexi went to lay on the couch to take a short nap. The trip preparations and trip had exhausted her. Tweetums, on the other hand couldn't stop moving, exclaiming cheerfully about finally arriving back home. Slam, Tech and Rev went to the kitchen to prepare a few pizzas, which was not an easy task, since Slam would eat the ingredients before they could make the pizzas.

"Aw come on, Slam… Cut that out! How are we going to make pizzas if you keep eating the ingredients?" Tech growled irritably as he tried to grab back some of the bacon Slam had taken. 

"He's right! You're always eating everything you see in front of your nose! We'd have to go into the city, find a supermarket, buy more ingredients, come back here, make the pizzas, wait for them to cook, that's if you don't take the stuff again before they're made… that will take a lot of time and I don't want to think about it… and I'm starving!!!" Rev grumbled in rapid fire manner.

Slam stood there shamefaced, gave the bacon to Tech, put his hands behind his back and tried to restrain himself.

"Easy there, Rev… easy there, I think Slam gets the picture, now can you stop blabbering about that and pass me the anchovies and the mushrooms?" Tech sighed, hungry and tired.

While the three tried to make their little snack, Ace and Duck were discovering there was nothing on the TV worth watching. They were too tired to do anything else, though. "Wouldn't you know it? More than 50000 channels from over 45 galaxies and still there's nothing good on TV. I wonder if the guys who control the TV grid decided to put every boring show on, when we decided to watch it… No wonder people get tired of watching TV, sometimes. It's always the same old thing. What I wouldn't give for a good TV show, right now!" Duck prattled on as he zapped the channels.

"And just what kind of TV show would you consider to be great, in your opinion, Duck?" Ace asked while he held the Guardian Strike Sword and studied its shining surface.

"Well, obviously a show that had me as the protagonist or as the host, of course. Now that would be a great show. I can see it now… my own show, "The Midnight Show with Danger Duck", or "Danger Duck, the Galaxy Avenger"!" He sighed dreamily.

"Yeah right, keep dreaming, Duck. The only way you're gonna appear on TV, is as one of the members of this team." Ace snorted in amusement.

"Well, I don't know, "fierce leader", we're the Loonatics. One of these days, we will get our own show, and then you'll see… I'll be the star!" Duck continued arrogantly.

Ace merely shrugged his shoulders and ignored him.

Lethargy seemed to grip them now that the excitement of packing up and moving had passed. Though they were tired, none wanted to go to bed yet. Except for the Royal Tweetums, who had finally succumbed and fell asleep on the couch near Lexi.

Lexi's nap hadn't helped her any so she jumped up and suggested a game of billiards, Katzillian style. 

The Katzillian version of billiards was considerably different from the game played in Acmetropolis. The balls were divided into two colors, twelve red balls and twelve blue balls, and finally, one blue and red ball. The cues were black, and the players had to wear what looked like pilot helmets to protect them from a potential misguided ball. The biggest difference in this game was the fact that the balls floated in the air. The player had to hit two balls from his/her colour with the red and blue ball before he could send one of the balls into one of the eight holes that existed on the table.

It was a complicated game that took great skill and could take hours to finish just one game. But that's what made it fun and challenging. They divided into two teams of three and started to play. Tweetums had waked up and was made the official judge by Ace. The game went on for almost an hour and the team of Slam, Tech and Ace were winning, when the sound of the alert alarm went off.

The Loonatics were already used to hearing that sound, every time Zadavia wanted to talk to them, but hadn't thought Zadavia would be calling them yet. Stopping the game, everyone dropped their cues and took off the helmets and ran to the communications room, where a hologram of Zadavia was already standing, waiting for them to show up.

"What's up Zadavia? Is there a problem?" Lexi asked as she sat in her chair.

"There is but it's not why I called you. I want you to come to my lodgings in the royal palace right now, please. I have something important to discuss with you all." She said.

"We'll be right there, boss-lady! Your wish is our command!" Duck responded snappily. "She's probably going to tell me how important a member of the team I am…" He whispered to Slam.

"Duck, zip it! It's not about you! I'll be waiting for you. Zadavia out!" She said, as the hologram turned off.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's beat feet!" Ace ordered jumping from his seat, running for the door. The rest quickly followed.

A few minutes later, they entered the palace. This place felt a little strange, what with the golden walls that reflected the light to the numerous statues of golden birds, obviously ancestors of the present Tweetums and the numerous atriums with gushing water fountains.

In one of the atriums was a statue of the former ruler of Blanc. Queen Granicus, pretender to the throne, wanted to eliminate Tweetums, so she could be sole ruler of the planet. She ended up being arrested and sentenced to prison for life by the Royal Tweetums himself. He decided to keep her statue as a memorial of what she represented, so that no one ever forgot what she tried to do against him, and what might have happen if he had been eliminated. For the short time she'd held the throne, she had been a cruel and selfish leader.

It proved to be a long and winding path through many corridors to Zadavia's quarters. They would have been lost if not for Tweetums being their guide. When they entered, the Loonatics benefactor was seated on a couch. Her wrist had finally been treated and was in a cast being supported by a sling against her chest.

The Loonatics were concerned but she quickly put them at ease. "It was a small accident, do not concern yourselves. Please have a seat and make yourselves comfortable." She said smiling.

Once they were settled, she began, "My dear Loonatics… I called you here to discuss a matter of grave importance. As you are aware, I have decided to accept the offer my government presented me, to be their Queen. This, of course, means I can no longer be here to guide you. Your job here as protectors for the universe is far more challenging than protecting a city. The universe is vast and you are but six. Because of this, I have decided to increase the size of the team. Ace and I have already discussed this need. While you were moving your headquarters, I was finding, interviewing and recruiting various new talents."

With the exception of Ace, the rest were shocked by her announcement. They had always assumed the team would never change. Some worried they were being questioned on their abilities and this was a polite way for Zadavia to say they were being replaced.

"Y-Y-Y-You can't do this to us, boss-lady… I mean, we went through so much together, and now… now you're just going to get rid of us!!!" Duck blurted worriedly, already misinterpreting what Zadavia had said.

Before Lexi or Tech could correct Duck's stupidity they were interrupted by Slam.

"Blalalarghhgahl… Aren't we good enough?" Slam said anxiously.

It was Ace who calmed them down, "Whoa guys! Wait a second; you weren't listening. She said increase the size of our team not replace it. Now let Zadavia finish what she wants to tell us." He motioned toward her, "Please Zadavia, continue…"

"Thank you, Ace," she smiled at him gratefully. "First of all, let me assure you that you're not going to be replaced, not even you Duck. I repeat… your team is not large enough to handle the dangers and challenges that the Universe holds so that is why I have recruited six more members for your team. I know this might be difficult to accept but I know with time and training you will integrate and become a larger but still cohesive team that fights together well," She paused a moment looking at each of them in turn before continuing.

"Ace will still be the leader. He is the one you will go to when problems arise as you learn to function together with your new team mates. You, as the original members, can help him do this smoothly and easily if you accept the recruits and make them welcome." She told them firmly.

They sat a few moments thinking about what she'd said except for Rev who too wound up to be still and was racing around Zadavia's quarters like a bullet. They almost couldn't understand him when he voiced a major concern.

"So who are these new members and how did they get their powers? When the meteorite hit Acmetropolis, us and some of the villains we've fought were changed. So where have they been hiding… why weren't they found at that time too… why didn't you get them then…?" He spit out.

"They don't have powers…yet. I need to speak with Tech later about acquiring some for them. For now, Rev, the only thing you need to know is they are individuals of natural talent, a pure heart, and who deserved a chance to become someone who helps others as well as themselves. With that in mind, I want to introduce your new team mates." She said.

Apparently, that was the signal because a door on the other side of the room opened and five individuals walked in. Leading the way was Patricia and Mimi, followed by Swift and finally Sylth and Pinkster.

The Loonatics reacted in shock at the sight of Sylth and Pinkster. Though Sylth had helped them during the war, they knew he had upset the Royal Tweetums and had been jailed again. But Pinkster, they knew was serving a long sentence in prison on Acmetropolis. To see him here was a nasty surprise. They looked at Zadavia in dismay. It was Ace though who voiced their concerns. "Well, Zadavia… uh… that's some pretty odd choices you've made. Uhm...could you explain how two criminals could qualify as new team members?" He laughed a little uneasily.

"I know this is somehow disturbing, but believe me when I say that Sylth and Pinkster really have changed for the better and that Patricia, Mimi and Swift were chosen for their abilities. They all have goodness and moral strength in their hearts, such things cannot be hidden from me.

Ace and the others weren't exactly sure about that. They believed that Sylth Vester might have changed since he helped them before, but Pinkster… he had manipulated them...betraying them once...he might be harder to accept… only Danger Duck was thrilled to see his old buddy again.

But, if Zadavia had seen something good in them, and chosen them, then, that had to be good enough. Though he had a few reservations, Ace was willing to accept her choices by making the first move to welcome their new team mates.

"Well, the only thing I can say is… Welcome to the Loonatics, my friends. I'm astonished to see you all here. Once we see what your talents are and how they will benefit the team the sooner we'll all be a functioning team. Don't worry about our reactions; we are still getting used to the idea of having new team mates and two of you will have to earn our trust." Ace said simply.

"You're talking about us two, aren't you, Ace?" Sylth said without rancor.

"Well, yes… I wasn't expecting to see you, or Pinkster, Sylth. But, let me just say that if Zadavia says you've changed your ways, then we're willing to give you a chance to prove it. Welcome to this team. Now, let's not be standing around here looking at each other… come on guys… say hello… introduce yourselves ...mingle a little." Ace coaxed his old team mates.

"Wait a second! Zadavia, you told us there were six new members, but I only see five. Who's the sixth member?" Tech asked.

"The sixth member is right at your side, Tech… It's Tweetums." Zadavia said quietly.

There were surprised looks on all their faces but once they'd absorbed the news, there were smiles on all their faces, except perhaps Danger Duck. Even Sylth, who had spent many years trying to capture him, was pleased to have him a member of the team.

"I may only be three parsecs old, but you can count on little me to help you with anything I can." The Royal Tweetums said proudly.

"Well, this is one more reason to celebrate…" Ace said smiling.

Both old and new members mingled and got to know one another. Duck gave his buddy a huge hug. Pinkster smiled happily to see his old friend again. Duck told him he was thrilled to have him on the side of good at last.

In another part of the room, Lexi warmly welcomed Patricia and Mimi and told them they would be best friends, helping each other with all kinds of problems. She was happy to not be the only girl on the team.

Ace shook hands with Sylth and smiled at him. "You know it was an honour to fight by your side and I'm looking forward to having you as my partner and friend," He said warmly.

"Thank you for giving me a chance. I won't let you down and I look forward to fighting by your side." Sylth said shyly.

Tech, Slam and Rev shook hands with Swift and congratulated Tweetums. They tried to figure out what Zadavia had seen in them to consider them as team mates. They were both so very small.

"Zadavia had asked me not to tell you guys about me being recruited. I felt bad having to keep it secret but a good king always keeps his promises." Tweetums told them solemnly.

"Right you are, Tweetums." Tech said pleased with his sense of honour.

"That is so true, mi amigos." Swift agreed

Zadavia watched them get to know each other and marvelled at how well they were adapting. She had been a little afraid that there might have been too many hurt feelings or suspicions of two of the members, but they proved her worry baseless by their willingness to accept change so quickly. 

A small tear of joy fell from her eyes which she quickly wiped away. Unfortunately, there was yet another matter that needed discussing. So, with great reluctance, she interrupted the 'party'. 

"I'm sorry but there is something else I need to speak to you about. Tech, I need you to take a look at this android head that attacked us in Acmetropolis." She said and quickly explained what had happened. "I need you to see if you can discover where it might have come from." She opened a box near the couch and bade Tech take the object out.

Tech looked it over for a few minutes, "Well at first glance, I can say for certain its Buldogian technology, military to be exact… but I can't tell you more until I do a thorough exam in my lab. I'll know more later and give you a report on it. I take it you are staying around for a little longer?" Tech asked."Yes. I want to find out more behind this attack and I need to speak with you about helping your new team mates acquire new powers. That discussion should be held in the Loonatics Tower though. I think we should adjourn and head there now." Zadavia said.


	8. Personal Stories and B Technology

Chapter 8: Personal Stories and Buldogian Technology

While old and new members were getting to know one another better, Tech was in his lab running a few tests on the androids head.

Tech scanned it countless times, analyzing every single section, microscopically, looking for any detail that might give him a clue as to the one's responsible for constructing this thing.

In the main living area of the Loonatics Headquarters, Zadavia watched as the old and new members socialized with each other. She was very pleased to see her "little experiment" was going so well. She had hoped they would be mature enough to accept added members and this was better than she had imagined. The acceptance of the new members would insure their ability to handle the new task before them. She relaxed and just listened to the conversations going on around her with a small smile of satisfaction.

Not far from her, Duck and Pinkster were catching up on the past. At the moment, the discussion was about what had happened to Pinkster while in prison. He'd still been ready for revenge until he was put into therapy then his attitude changed dramatically.

"It was a dreadful… dreadful… dreadful… It was a terrible experience, Duck. Y-Y-You can't even imagine how l-l-life in jail is. At first, I thought that the p-p-prison… that the p-p-prison… I thought that that place was a dump, but it was g-g-great, because I could plan m-m-m-my revenge against you… B-B-But once you start your rehabili… rehabili… rehabili… But once you start your treatment, to cure yourself, you f-f-find out that it is a l-l-living Hell inside." Pinkster said unhappily.

"Well, the experience was bad, but the therapy obviously helped. You don't have to remember the bad stuff anymore, Pinkster… You're one of the good guys now. Forget that pitiful and miserable life of crime you lived in the past… the future is all that's important now and we're together again." Duck said encouragingly. "Believe me, with you by my side, we will be the unstoppable duo… I can see it now, Danger Duck and Pinkster Pig, the greatest duo of heroes in the universe." Duck said his eyes beginning to glow in that odd way that made Pinkster uneasy. It usually meant Duck was fantasizing about himself again.

"I-I-I never liked it when you do… you do… you do… when your eyes glow like that, Duck. Y-y-y you're being selfish again!" Pinkster scolded him, though admittedly it did look kind of amusing.

Sylth and Ace were watching an old samurai movie on TV.

"So, you decided to change your ways and came to work with the good guys, hey? You know… what I said back there… about it being an honour to fight by your side?… I meant every word. You are an excellent and strong fighter… a rare breed, in fact. Zadavia made a wise choice and we're lucky to have you." Ace said solemnly.

"Thanks for those kind words… You're not a bad fighter yourself, Ace. I've never seen anyone handle a sword the way you do… it's remarkable. I'm a fair hand at sword fighting too, so I know what I'm talking about." Sylth said with a grin turning his head back to the show.

"Is that so? Well, maybe we should spar a bit during training, test each other out and see just how good we are. It should be fun!" Ace said with a smile of anticipation on his face.

"Sounds like a challenge and one I just might accept." Sylth said giving him a sly grin.

In Lexi quarters, the female members were getting to know each other while sitting on her bed. Lexi was thrilled to have others of the same sex on the team. She had been tired of being the only girl. There were just some things that only girls would understand. 

"It was a big surprise to find out Zadavia had recruited more team members and that some of them were girls… For me it's a wonderful thing. It will be great having others to talk to about things that aren't sports, movies, and bad guys." Lexi said excitedly, grinning at the girls.

Mimi giggled and smiled back. "We're happy to be here. Especially, after what happened to us, you know? Me and my sister thought that we were going to end up in the streets after we quit our job yesterday, then Zadavia appeared and gave us this opportunity. We couldn't believe our luck and we just couldn't say no and walk way," she said, with her French accent very pronounced.

"Mimi's right… I mean, it's everyone's dream to be part of this team. You're the most famous and most successful super hero team in Acmetropolis. Well, actually you're the only super heroes in the city, but still you're amazing. I bet you've gotten tons of proposals and dates from all around the Universe, girl friend!" Patricia said grinning, her accent as thick as her sister's.

Suddenly, Lexi became a little blush. "Well, not really… I mean, I've had some proposals but I've really not gone on dates. I bet you two have had more than I, but let's not talk about that. There will be other opportunities for that kind of chit chat. Right now, I'd like to know more about you. I've told you how I became a Loonatic now it's your turn to 'bare your souls' as it were. Don't be shy, we're all girls here." she coaxed them.

Patricia and Mimi looked at each other for a moment before Mimi began to tell their tale.

"Well… we're orphans. We were only babies when we were placed in an orphanage. We don't know who our parents were, and has you might noticed, we're not really blood sisters, but we grew up depending on each other in the orphanage and thought of each other as sisters. We were fortunate to be adopted by the same person when we were seven years old. The old lady saw how close we were to each other and couldn't bear to part us. She was very poor but had wanted kids for a long time. Despite her circumstances, she took very good care of us and tried to give us every thing she could. We owe her so very much… her love, an education, a roof over our heads, her valuable lessons on life, courage, and her friendship." Mimi said softly. "Unfortunately, she died a year ago and we were left orphans again. We knew how to take care of ourselves and found a job and looked out for each other," she finished smiling warmly at her adopted sister with tears in her eyes and matching the ones in Patricia's eyes.

Lexi was stunned. Her life hadn't been rosy especially when she'd been bullied a lot at the University, but her life was fairly normal when compared to the life that her girl friends had. She didn't know how she would have managed to survive under those circumstances. They were two brave girls for having survived that kind of life and Lexi felt humble in their company.

Smiling warmly, she leaned forward and gave them both a tight hug. "I think you both were very brave to have survived what you did, and you deserve to be here, more than anyone else. You don't have to worry anymore… You're part of this team now, and it may not seem like it yet, but we're a family. Welcome to the family!"

In another part of living room, Slam, Rev, Tweetums, and Swift were chatting amiably. At the moment they were listening to Swift talk about his planet, family and music. "Wow! That's quite a story, Swift… You know; my parents cared more about me than my brother Rip. I was considered the genius of the family, because like I said before, my family is nothing more but geniuses. They specialize in the fields of electronics and robotics. I never considered myself as smart as they. My brother is really brighter than I, but my parents didn't feel that way and snubbed him, especially my dad," Rev said in that speeded up language of his, a little bitter. "Just like you, I was given special treatment and my siblings were ignored. I think that is just wrong… Fortunately, a short time ago, my dad saw my brother Rip for what he really is, and he gave him a chance to prove it, by correcting a little mess that I created. Parents should give their kids equal treatment…"

"You are right, Rev!" Swift interrupted gently. "But that is also no longer true in my family. Mi padres have returned to giving my brothers and sisters fair attention now that I am gone. I'm glad but also sad that it took me leaving for that to change. I haven't had a chance to tell them I am a super hero now… wonder how they will react to that wonderful news?" Swift said thoughtfully.

"Blarghlraghlarhlgl… Don't worry! I'm sure they will be very happy for you." Slam said in his usual scrambled fashion.

"Slam is right… I'm sure your parents will be very happy with the news. In fact, I'm certain they will be proud of you." Tweetums said, in his squeaky voice while patting Swift on the shoulder.

"I'm sure you are right, mi amigos. Mi padres will want to hold a huge fiesta to celebrate the news with all my familia attending. Of course, you will all be invited… Arriba!!! What is that?" Swift shouted in surprise as an alarm sounded suddenly.

The original Loonatics calmly headed for the elevator gesturing to their new members, reassuringly, to follow them. It wasn't a general alarm but a specific one. It told them Tech had discovered something.

Pressing the appropriate button for Tech's lab, Ace smiled easily at the nervous newbies. The elevator decanted them at Tech's floor. The coyote was standing in front of one of his many monitors, tapping into a keyboard and in the air, hung a hologram of the android's head.

"So, what's up, Tech? What did you find about that metal head?" Ace asked for all of them.

"I entered hacked into the data base of the Buldogian Army. I found our 'friend's head' in their records. Its listed as a military android and not just any android but the most powerful android ever built by the Buldogian civilization… the Canis XLR 3.0," Tech said in awe as he pushed a button on his board and the hologram image changed to the android's full body. 

Zadavia and the others that had been with her during their encounter with the android recognized it as the one that had attacked them.

"It's really an amazing piece of state of art robotics, guys. It's made out of a special metal alloy known as Spengleranium, that is made by fusing Spengler crystals with Solarium, which by itself is a very strong metal, but once its fused with those crystals, becomes even stronger. The Spengleranium is able to hold volcanic temperatures, but the Spengleranium that is in this head that you brought me is a very old type, which means it wasn't as strong as the new versions. That's why you were able to stop him. The newer models would have obliterated you." Tech said grimly.

"So besides it armor, what sort of weapons does that baby have, Tech?" Lexi asked in concern.

"I can answer that, since I worked with an android of that type before. It has quantum laser guns, ballistic grenades, quantum discs that explode on contact, not to mention it is able to create a powerful shield that repels anything fired at it. It's almost impossible to destroy these newer models. You were lucky to have only encountered an older one." Sylth said heavily, while he checked the hologram.

"Just like Sylth said, this android is no pushover. I wasn't able to find exactly where this one came from because the plaque with the series number was erased by a laser gun. Still, I do know one thing… these androids were always built exclusively for the Buldogian Army, so whoever sent this one out has to be a Buldogian or has someone working on the inside of the Buldogian Army, who arranged the theft of one, and sent it to hunt for whatever it was looking for at that restaurant.

"What about the records on the CPU, Tech? Did you find something that could lead us to the one who sent it to hunt?" Zadavia asked frowning as she studied the hologram.

"Unfortunately, no, for you see, when you short-circuited the android, the entire memory that was in the CPU disappeared or was scrambled. I'm sorry, but this was the best I could do." Tech said shrugging his shoulders in frustration.

"That's alright, Tech. You did find out something at least and that's good… We'll be alert for something that may be connected to its attack. It would help if we knew what or who it was after at that restaurant." Zadavia mused distractedly. "Anyway we have other, more important, matters to take care of right now. We still need to give your new team members powers so they can start their training before you need them on your next mission," Zadavia said firmly. "Do you think you can invent a machine that can recreate the radiation caused by that meteor that changed you?" She asked Tech.

Tech frowned thoughtfully for some minutes then muttered, "Well, I may be able to create something with those characteristics, but there's a problem. To duplicate the radiation of the impact, I would need a fragment of the meteorite. It could be just a small piece… about the size of a nut… Unfortunately, I think the original meteorite was nearly vaporized on impact, and then we destroyed the rest of it, when your brother tried to make it crash into Acmetropolis."

"That's actually not a problem, Tech. I, fortunately, have a small fragment of it… about the size of my fist. It's in my quarters. I kept just in case it might be needed and it looks like my foresight has paid off. Now, about the invention itself… What do you intend to invent, that will recreate the radiation?" She asked the coyote, who was thinking about the same thing.

"Well, I might be able to use the fusion chamber of the tower to recreate the impact of the meteor, after some minor adjustments. There's always the chance of something going wrong, because I'll not be able to control the amount of radiation and the result may not be the one we hope to achieve, but I'll try it. With the help of Rev, and maybe Pinkster, if he's willing to help me design it, I'll have it ready by tomorrow." Tech promised.

"Excellent! I'm sure Pinkster would be happy to help you and Rev with the construction of this device," Zadavia said pleased. "I'll bring you the fragment."


	9. New Powers and the Rise of Darkness

Chapter 9: New Powers and the Rise of Darkness

Tech, Rev and Pinkster remained in the laboratory discussing ways to convert the fusion chamber while the rest of the group went back to the living room to discuss the best way to clean out rooms that had been used for storage a long time and make them quarters for the new members.

Zadavia decided to return to the palace since she wasn't needed right now. She needed to catch up on her own affairs, get a meal and, later, bring the meteorite fragment to Tech.

The rest of the team spent the afternoon moving the stored items from the upper areas and consolidating it into the present storage areas in the basement. It was hard, exhausting work but soon all the rooms needed for quarters were emptied, cleaned and furnished for each member. Tweetums had very graciously provided all the new furnishings to the pleasure of his new team mates.

As for Tweetums, himself, he decided to take a room and have some of his favourite things from the palace brought to put in it. He figured since he needed to train with them, it didn't seem right or convenient for him to be at the palace and commute all the time. His advisors could just come to the Loonatics Tower to see him.

Patricia and Mimi managed to get a fairly large room for themselves, since they were unwilling to be separated, having been too used to sharing space for a long time.

After all the work was done, Ace suggested a quick meal and early bedtime. It had been an emotionally charged day and they all needed some time alone to sort everything out in their minds. Everyone agreed that was a good idea and went to raid the kitchen, fixing their own meals. The room was filled with amiable chatter as they ate. Finished, they cleaned up their mess and said their good nights as they drifted to their new quarters.

Before going to bed himself, Ace had made up a meal for the three team mates working in the basement. He slipped in with the food, watched them for a few minutes, smiled at their intense concentration and left the food on an unoccupied table. If they got hungry the food would be waiting for them. He left as quietly as he'd arrived, the three never noticed.

"Very well, I think that we can start modifying the proton fuser now so we can put the Nano Stabilizer in order." Tech said as he went over the plans, checking every detail.

"M-M-Maybe we should assemble the refractor b-b-beam, first, because we're going to… going to… going to need it assembled before putting the Fragmentation Chamber in order. Of course, the main reason is because it will… because it will… because it will… because the Proton Fuser might short-circuit." Pinkster cautioned.

"Well, if you say so… I usually don't do things like that, but let's try it." Tech said hesitantly, but willing to go along with Pinkster's suggestion. He turned to Rev, "You heard Pinkster, Rev, start assembling the refractor beam, but very be gentle about it, I don't want any errors on this one, ok?" 

"Sure thing, Tech! There's not going to be a problem with it. In fact, let me just say that Pinkster is right about the refractor beam. If we don't assemble it together first and we start to assemble another part of this crazy machine of yours, we would probably blow the entire chamber. It's not that I'm trying to say that you're not being very careful about all this, but you should pay a little more attention, for you're very nervous about this and all and something might go wrong." Rev warned his team mate in his normal fast paced speech.

"D-D-Don't be too hard on T-T-Tech, Rev! I-I-It's not easy… I-I-It's not easy… I-I-It's not easy… It's very complicated to build a machine like this." Pinkster soothed Rev.

Rev just nodded and raced off to get started on his part of the job.

Meanwhile, on Planet Caninus… In a galaxy not far from Planet Blanc.

The shadowy figure that had attacked Zadavia and her group at the Mexicool Paradise Club in Acmetropolis, walked quickly through a military complex where all kinds of weapons used by the Buldogian Army were stored. They ranged from simple laser guns to the most technologically advanced and well armed space ships.

It was a villain's paradise. This particular villain had allied himself with the most dangerous person in the universe and was here to take something to aid the cause of that person. Stealing weapons for personal use was punishable by public execution, but he wasn't concerned.

As he approached the guard standing before the door to the armoury, the guard demanded the password and the visitor gave the countersign. The guard relaxed and acknowledged the person.

"Greetings! General Vector Bulldog, sir." He said briskly.

"At ease, soldier… I came to retrieve a few things from the armoury for a very special mission." The General told the soldier in an authoritative voice.

"Yes, sir, just a moment!" The soldier said turning to tap in the code on the keypad. The door silently popped open. The guard quickly pulled the heavy door open the rest of the way and let the General enter.

General Vector Bulldog was once an honest soldier, but greed and his thirst for power had overcome his morals. His greatest desire was to have the Buldogians conquer the galaxy then the universe. His reasons were purely selfish. Putting the Buldogians on top would gain him the wealth and power he desired.

He was a white bulldog with sharp pointy teeth and wore a red and black uniform, with its jacket pocket covered with medals, along with a whip. As a top ranking officer, he had full access to all the military hardware and as a war hero; no one would ever suspect him of committing treason.

The government didn't interfere with the military's activities, giving them free rein to do what they needed to protect Buldogians. Their politics were evenly divided. Half believed their planet with its ten moons was a huge empire and were quite content with the way things were. The other half believed it was their right to expand their frontiers bringing more wealth for the planet's use. They were pushing for the government to allow them to begin exploring further outside their galaxy though they didn't say they intended to conquer what they found. General Bulldog used this faction to cover his illicit activities and actually egged them on. But he didn't care if they succeeded or not, he had a better plan in mind to get what he wanted.

Moving through the armoury, he headed straight for what he had come for, the new models of the Canis XLR 3.0 android. These were all shiny and new, and more dangerous than the one that was blown apart in Acmetropolis.

Grinning evilly, he decided that he would take some other weapons and androids as well, which could be of some use to him. The androids he chose were the Canis XLX 5000, which was similar to the Canis XLR 3.0, but was shorter, slimmer and more versatile in terms of speed and agility, making it perfect for surprise attacks, and the B-Dog Annihilator, which was an android that looked like a skeleton of a bulldog with red eyes and armed with gatling laser guns. The androids were perfect for combat and Vector just loved them, for once programmed they would not stop until the mission was completed.

"Yes, these will do nicely…" he murmured to himself, well pleased. Suddenly his hidden communicator chirped, he grumbled... "What now?!" As he activated it and asked sharply: "Yes, what's the matter now?"

"Why are you taking so long? I'm getting tired of waiting for you!!!" The mysterious voice snarled impatiently.

"It took me a little longer to get the things I wanted, but don't worry… I just have to finish this, and then I'll be there to free you. Just make sure that everything is according to plan. I have a lot at stake because of you!" The General growled.

"Everything is ready; It is you who's late! Now get your tail here, this instant, you bumbling canine!" The voice said coldly furious before clicking off.

"Geez Louise! What an impatient pain in the tail. I'm doing everything she wants and still I get yelled at. If I didn't need her, I'd leave her locked up," He grumbled to himself as he checked his choices for any problems they might have before he took them away.

Not long after the General was loading his weapons on his personal spaceship. Since he didn't require any authorization for taking off or landing on Caninus, no one questioned him when he took off and left the planet entirely speeding to his secret rendezvous.Morning arrived sooner than the three in the lab wished. They had not slept as they worked through the night on the modified fusion chamber.

Upstairs, Ace and the others had awakened in good humour and were scrounging breakfast. Most had decided to simply have a bowl of cereal. Duck, however, had opted for one of his protein shakes and was trying to convince Tweetums to have too.

"Come on you yellow canary… It's a protein shake, this is what heroes eat for breakfast. Have one! Duck insisted as he put poured some of the protein shake into a glass.

"I prefer not, sir Duck… that does not look edible." Tweetums said looking with disgust at the yellowish liquid in the blender.

"Do you think that I, Danger Duck, your royal knight would give you something that is not good to eat? Well then, I'll prove it to you by swallowing it first… and one more thing, canary face, since we're partners now, you call me Danger Duck, or Duck, not Sir Duck, okay?" Duck said firmly.

With that, Duck drank the entire protein shake then made a hilarious face, like he was going to through up. The others could not contain their laughter while Duck tried to recover and pretend the shake was fine even though it was so bad it tasted like cardboard.Taking the opportunity to rub it in, Ace asked innocently, "So, Duck, how's the shake?"

"It's very goooooooooooood… Really, it's delicious!" Duck said defiantly not giving Ace the satisfaction of seeing him back down.

"I admit that I've been tortured by canary face there, but the things that he's done to me while I was trying to capture him are nothing compared to the expression on your face right now… Now that's punishment!" Sylth laughed uproariously.

"Blargallaghrhagal… Funny!" Slam chortled.

"I fear your culinary talents are not very great, sir Duck… I mean, Duck." Tweetums said sweetly. "Perhaps you should try one of the many recipes of Blanc's cuisine that I know… I'm sure that with a little practice, you could be an excellent cook." He added helpfully.

"Thanks, but no thanks, yellow feathers… I think I'll leave the cooking to someone else," Duck grumbled as he washed his mouth out, trying to get rid of the strange taste of cardboard.

The rest of breakfast passed pleasantly after that. When they were finishing, Zadavia appeared with a small box in her hands. It was a sapphire blue box with a small gold keyhole. They knew this was where she had placed the fragment.

As they were about to wish her a good morning, the alarm sounded, it was from the lab. Eagerly, they all piled on the elevator and headed to the basement. Within seconds they were striding toward the threesome standing before the fusion chamber. Ace and the present team could see the modifications that had been made. The new members just stared at it in fascination. The one thing they noticed was it seemed smaller than before due to the new devices installed in it to make it go according to Tech's plan.

"It took us all night, but it's done. The fusion chamber has been modified and it's now ready to do its stuff. All we need now is the fragment to start it," Tech said tired but excited. Zadavia moved forward and offered the box.

Tech opened it and there was the fragment nestled in blue velvet. It was no bigger than Zadavia's fist. The old members felt in awe of it. This meteorite was responsible for making them who they were now and it was time for it to do its magic one last time, by releasing its special properties and transferring them to the bodies of the six new Loonatics, who were excited and a little bit scared of what was going to happen.

Tech reverently took it from the box and inserted it in the Fragmentation Chamber, closing it.

"Before you enter the chamber, let me remind you that you all have been chosen for your special qualities and for the pureness of your hearts. Not even the most evil forces in the Universe can change or take that away from you. I know you're a bit scared, but remember to hold only positive thought and hope for the best, my Loonatics. Good Luck!" Zadavia told them warmly.

Smiling nervously, the new members stepped into the chamber. It was a bit close inside as they stood tensely waiting for Tech to turn it on.Tech sealed the door and started to program the machine. Tapping all of the buttons in the keyboard, he checked and double-checked all of the procedures and security measures, so he could start the sequence. Inside the chamber, the new Loonatics were beginning to suffer a little of claustrophobia. Mimi was starting to look very pale. Patricia and Pinkster pressed their bodies closer to keep her from fainting. Swift was sitting on Sylth's shoulder so he wouldn't be stepped on. He began murmuring a little song his mother taught him to help calm himself.

Sylth Vester let his mind swim away on an ocean of memories. All the missions that he had done for Queen Granicus, his childhood and also the missions that he had done under another person's orders, passed in front of his eyes, and he reached the conclusion that what he was about to do now was probably the most significant thing he'd done in his life.

His thoughts were rudely disrupted by Tweetums who was on his other shoulder. He was excited and bouncing up and down.

"So, are you going to be a "good old puddy tat", from now on?" Tweetums asked.

"I've told you that I've been a "good old puddy tat" since the battle with Deuce, but you never believed me, canary face." Slyth snorted.

Outside the chamber, Tech was finally finished programming the machine and hoped that everything went according to the plan. The machine started the program and the Fragmentation Chamber began to work. The piece of the meteorite that was placed inside started to shine, and then it crumbled into pieces, that became smaller and smaller, until there was no trace of them.

Inside the chamber, a kind of mist started to appear then there were small explosions that released some kind of glowing particles. Finally, a light brighter than any star, emerged out of nowhere, and settled over the huddled group.

Tech was relieved and proud; everything was going smoothly so far, that is, until the door of the fusion chamber started to melt creating holes in the door allowing a few stray beam of that intense light to pour through hitting the older Loonatics. Tech hurriedly tried to shut down the chamber but was struck by a beam that sent him flying. Fortunately, Zadavia was able to hit the emergency switch shutting down the machine.

Everything went still for a moment. Inside the chamber the light faded slowly revealing the silhouettes of the new Loonatics. Zadavia opened the chamber when the light disappeared altogether.

Swift was the first to step out. He raced around the room in excitement running nearly as fast as Rev. The others stepped out gingerly, uncertain what might have happened to them. The older members were climbing to their feet where they'd been thrown. They carefully checked each other over for any injuries.

While they were occupied, Zadavia asked, "Did it work, Tech?"

"I won't know until I check everyone, but I would dare to say yes, since Swift seems to have changed… But, just to be certain, I created this device to tell us if the radiation affected their DNA's like we hoped. Come on, guys, if you could just come here for a second, I will get this over quickly and we'll have our answer." Tech called to everyone.

Moments later, the new Loonatics took turns standing in front of Tech while he examined each of them with his device. Sylth was the first. The device started beeping furiously as soon as it was pointed at him. After him, each member was checked and each of them made the device beep. What was a shock was the older Loonatics also set off the device.

"Well that proves each of these guys are radiated and should have new powers. I don't know what effect the beam has had on the rest of us though. The device clearly shows we received a dose of radiation as well but not as strongly as them.

"What does that mean, Tech? Are you saying that we also have new powers?" Ace asked in concern.

"Well, that I don't know!" Tech said uncertainly. "I need to check us all out, but first, we better go to the lab upstairs, so I can see what powers each of our new members have."

Tech went to the elevator and the others followed him. Once back in the lab, the coyote pulled out a strange looking device, from one of the main consoles. It looked like a huge magnifying lens except it had all sorts of gadgets attached to it. He focused the device on each of them. Some of the results were ones he had expected, but the results that he and the original members presented, was a shock.

"Well, this is a surprise… it seems the beams of light that escaped the chamber succeeded in altering our DNA giving us an additional power on top of our old ones. We'll have to check out what those new powers could be, but first let me tell our new members what they've received as new powers." Tech said turning his attention to their new members.

"First, Sylth...it looks like you've gained super strength, invisibility and impenetrable skin that will be resistant to most types of lasers and ammunition. As a bonus, the radiation seems to have erased every scar you had. That is true of the rest of you too." Tech told them.

Slyth was stunned. He quickly opened his chest armour and discovered a perfect furred chest; the molecular acid burn was gone. He could feel his back teeth had returned… his tail was normal in appearance and his arm fine. Finally, he removed his helmet and sunglasses and in their reflective surface he saw a face no longer disfigured. Tears of amazement and joy fell down his face. He was whole once more and on top of that he had new super powers. He felt nearly overwhelmed with his good fortune. There was no trace of the hitman he'd once been.

"Sufferin' succotash, I… I… I don't even know what to say… this is incredible, it's like I've been completely reborn," he breathed a smile spreading across his face.

"No words are necessary, Sylth...the look on your face is answer enough. We're all very happy for you." Zadavia said smiling warmly at him then she turned to Tech, "Please, Tech, I know the others are beside themselves wanting to know what their powers are."

"Of course, well Pinkster you have some pretty amazing powers... you have the ability to turn into any type of material you can think of, become liquid, and be able to pass your form through any object." Tech told the pig.

Pinkster was thrilled. He wasted no time experimenting with his new abilities. He turned his arm into a diamond and was delighted when he could control the form of it. 

"Mimi and Patricia, your powers are very different from each other. Mimi has become incredibly elastic, capable of stretching herself ten to twenty times her own height, possess exceptional agility and can change your shape, but unlike Pinkster you change into other people. Patricia, you possess psychic powers: telepathy, being able to create psychic barriers and produce sonic screams." Tech said.

The sisters were overjoyed and awed by their new powers. Patricia tried to read her sister's mind and Mimi changed her appearance to look like a twin of her sister. They laughed giddily at each other.

"Now for the last two, Tweetums you can change your size, fly at hyper speeds, and levitate others. Swift, you have supersonic speed, like Mimi you have exceptional agility as well, and your eyes are capable of infrared, x-ray and night vision." Tech said finished at last. He watched in amusement as the newest members experimented with their new powers.

After watching for a few minutes, he turned to his old team mates, "As for us, Ace has acquired the ability to multiply himself, Lexi has regained her ability to super grow plants and control living beings, Duck, you can breath underwater, Rev, you are able to turn yourself into some kind of fire bird, sorta like a phoenix, when you reach a determined speed, Slam now has an icy breath, and I can access any computer in a 20 yards with my mind, and operate it." He told them as he experimented with his new ability. "I'm definitely sure these new powers are going to come in handy in the future."

All of them were excited about their new powers, all of them except Danger Duck, who thought his power of being able to breathe underwater, was nothing that special, but still, he accepted that his power could also be useful in the future. Zadavia was even more surprised than all of them, because she never thought that a thing like that could actually happen. She didn't want to interrupt the celebration, but she still had something to do before everything was in its proper order.

"If I could have your attention for just a moment longer, my Loonatics, I have one last thing to offer you. Something that will be your personal trademark… new uniforms," She said and used her power to clothe each in their outfits.

The uniforms were a match to the older teams. All uniforms were black, and each one of the badges had a different colour. Sylth's was dark blue, Pinkster's was baby blue, Tweetum's was grey, Mimi's was dark green, Patricia's was white and Swift's was light brown. Their faces matched their badges.

Ace looked them over and said, "Well, guys, those are some pretty awesome uniforms... now you are really a part of this team."

Having their powers, and their own uniforms, made all of them feel even more special than before. They now felt part of the team for real and they couldn't wait to show what they could really do.

"Can't wait to try mis powers on a real mission!" Swift exclaimed excitedly as he sped around the laboratory.

"Don't worry, you'll have your opportunity because as a super hero team that is recognized all over the universe we get called all the time. It won't be long before were summoned somewhere in the galaxy or universe to safe the day and then you'll see just how cool this life really is." Rev said joining Swift doing laps around the lab.

"You know, those two have given me an idea. What do you say to a test run of our powers in the Simulation Room?" Lexi asked Ace with a twinkle in her eye.

"That ain't a bad idea, Lexi. Come on guys, let's have some fun." Ace shouted to his new team.

Giddy with excitement, the group hurried after their leader for the Simulation Room for their first training session. Their joy would soon be short-lived as darkness began to rise on their new home. They would be forced to use their new powers under battle conditions very soon.


	10. The Training and the Escape

Chapter 10: Training and the Escape

Following Ace into the Simulation Room, the whole team was anxious to see if they could really work together. Once they arrived, Tech programmed the room to reproduce the battle against Deuce with some major differences. Instead of Wormhole Central it would be downtown Acmetropolis. Tech had added more obstacles; more robots of different kinds plus Deuce and even an old villain of theirs, Gunnar the Conqueror and his Viking robots just to spice things up a bit. He wanted this to be a true test of all their abilities… new and old. 

Ace was pleased with the program and couldn't wait to try his hand at tackling two different opponents especially with additional forces on his side. Zadavia decided to watch from the control room. She wanted to see how well the team would interact together.

"Okay Loonatics here's the scenario… We got two villains to stop, and we need to work fast, or this holographic Acmetropolis will be blown into smithereens. So here's what we're gonna do, I'm going to split the teams. Slam, Mimi, Tech, Sylth, Rev and I are going after Gunnar; Duck you will lead the rest of the team against Deuce." Ace gave his orders. 

"Sure, just leave it to me, Ace… you'll see that I, Danger Duck, am the only one qualified to be second in command." Duck said grinning happily, overjoyed at being able to show off his stuff.

"I chose you because if I didn't you would complain about it for the rest of the week and so you'll finally learn what it's really like to be a leader," Ace said with a mocking smile at Duck's posturing then turned to the others. "Now enough chit chat let's get down and rumble!" He ordered as he headed off followed by his team. 

"You're really despicable, you know that, don't you?" Duck said rhetorically as he stormed off in a different direction with his team.

Ace's team was the first ones to get face to face with their targets. Gunnar looked extremely realistic which Ace thought terrific. The more realistic, the better the test. Ace focused his attention on the scene before him and let go any other extraneous thoughts. At the moment, Gunnar with his army were destroying the buildings around them by freezing then punching or kicking the resultant brittle buildings making them crumble to pieces.

"Hey, what's up doc?" Ace asked, mocking the holographic Gunnar who turned toward him, a furious expression on his face.

"I ain't no doc, I'm Gunnar the Conqueror, kneel before me, you pitiful and insignificant creatures!" He snarled.

"Nice one, Tech… I like the new lines you gave old frost face," Ace said, complimenting his team mate on his work.

"Thanks, I tried to make them as realistic as possible. I know how much you enjoy making fun of every villain that we come across, so I decided to introduce these new lines, and see what you can come up with," Tech said with pride.

"Cool! Okay, let's see if I can make this guy really angry… Hey, captain bucket-head, I'm sorry but I think you don't understand who you are dealing with, because if you did, you would be shaking in those cold frozen boots of yours!" Ace smirked, egging the guy on.

"Hey, nice one!" Sylth smirked in admiration, chuckling.

"You little… I'm going to…"

"Going to what? You're going to turn us into popsicles, captain frosty?!" Ace mocked once again, causing Gunnar to lose it completely.

"I'm going to freeze you and your buddies, bunny rabbit!" Gunnar shrieked as he swung his hammer and tried to smash Ace like a pancake.

But as Gunnar's hammer swung down Ace used his new power to multiply. Now there were eight of him. Gunner gaped at the many rabbits facing him. He blew his top and tried to clubber every image before him, determined to keep at it till he got lucky and squashed the Leader of the Loonatics. The real Ace was hiding behind a mailbox signalling the others to come closer.

The team crouched down with their leader as he laid out a plan. "While "Captain Viking" there is busy trying to find the real me, I want Sylth and Tech to go left, Mimi and Rev go right and Slam to come with me. We'll hit him with everything we got from three directions. Got it?" There were nods all around. "Good! Let's jet!" He snapped. The team split up. As soon as they were in position, Ace gave the order.

"Loonatics attack!" Following Ace's orders, each member of the team attacked the robotic Vikings with everything they had. Sylth distracted them by using his invisibility power, confusing them, while Tech used his magnetic powers to lift them then make them crash into the walls destroying them.

Rev and Mimi decided to destroy their targets by using Rev's super speed, to confuse the robots about the positions of their targets, then Mimi used her stretching powers, which made her look like a rubber band, wrapped herself around them and squeezed until they exploded. They were doing great until Gunner's backups arrived. 

They needed to revise their strategy. Tech and Rev decided to use some tricks of their own based on their more experienced knowledge. Rev began to run around the robots faster and faster forcing them to move closer to each other. As Rev went really fast causing the robots to rise in the air and begin to spin. Tech used his magnetic powers to make them stick together so that when Rev suddenly stopped his running the robots slammed to the ground banging into each other. 

The ones that survived fired ice beams at the team, but Sylth stepped in front taking the beams against his impenetrable body, repelling them back on the robots… making them brittle. Mimi used that opportunity to kick and punch the robots, shattering them.

"Now that's what I call, breaking the ice!" Mimi said cheerfully, as she smashed one of the heads of the robots with her foot.

Meanwhile, Slam and Ace were trying to get rid off Gunnar. Slam turned himself into a tornado and made the Viking robot fly into the air then used his new ice power to make a ramp that Ace used to propel himself close to Gunner and, using his Guardian Strike Sword, to slice him into bits.

"Well, that takes care of that… Well done, Slam!" Ace said, complimenting the Tasmanian devil for the trick that he used. "And congratulations to the rest of the team… I see that we still need to work on a few things but overall, that was a very good first time." He told the team warmly.

While Ace and his team congratulated each other for the excellent work they had accomplished, on the other side of the room, Duck's team was having a few problems of their own. Duck was supposed to coordinate them, by giving them advice and instructions on what they should do, but instead he went it alone leaving the team behind.

He was determined to get revenge on Deuce for his humiliation even if this Deuce was only a hologram. He needed to redeem himself for his previous failure, back in Wormhole Central. Using his quantum powers, Duck teleported himself here and there quickly, confusing the robots but not for long. After all they were robots and learned quickly. They estimated when he would appear and caught him just as they predicted and placed him in an impenetrable bubble that neutralized his powers. He was shocked.

"Hey! Tech never said anything about these guys having devices that could neutralize our powers!" Duck objected as he tried to get out of the containment bubble.

"Looks like we'll have to save him ourselves… and since Duck has been captured, I'll take it from here, so listen up people. We have to trust each other and be ready for anything as Duck so neatly demonstrated. Patricia, you come with me… Pinkster, you try to get Duck out of that thing. Swift and Tweetums, I want you to take out as many robots as you can so we have more room to manoeuvre. Now as Ace would say, Loonatics, let's jet!" Lexi shouted as she and Patricia made off in Deuce's direction.

Now, with specific orders from Lexi, her team chose their targets and got busy cleaning house. Pinkster slipped close to the bubble without the guards spotting him and used his ability to change into any substance to turn his hands into some sort of red plasma that melted the containment bubble. When the robot guards discovered him, they tried to stop the pig by grabbing him. This made it easier for Pinkster to melt them while they were holding him. Grinning in triumph, he watched for any more robots while Duck stepped out of the melted containment bubble.

"Thanks buddy… It seems that I was taken by surprise." Duck said, not wanting to admit that he was captured because he didn't wait for anyone else in the group to help him.

"N-N-No problem, Duck! Now let's… Now let's… Now let's go help the others." Pinkster said brushing off the thanks and pointing to where the rest of the battle was.

Tweetums and Swift found combining there powers made taking out the robots easier. Swift would race around the robots and as they would try to fire at him he would speed under and around them causing the robots to fire on each other. Tweetums caused havoc by levitating the robots into each other then dropping them to the floor. They managed to clear a considerable area of robots.

Just arriving, Duck and Pinkster began picking off the survivors of Swift and Tweetums attack. Pinkster turned into a body of water and Duck used his Aqua Dense ability to wipe out the enemy. More robots came on the scene but the four kept acting together wiping them out easily.

Elsewhere in the room, Lexi and Patricia were tackling Deuce who was using a light sabre style sword; reminiscent of Star Wars with one difference… it could change into a whip. 

Patricia decided to read Deuce's mind to see what he was going to do next, but encountered a blank. She remembered, to her chagrin, that, of course, it was blank… this was a hologram. She quickly regrouped and threw up a psychic barrier instead, which allowed Lexi to use her sonic blasts causing Deuce to break off his attack and flee. Lexi and Patricia herded Deuce into a dead end alley where Patricia threw up another barrier blocking it. Lexi fired a sonic blast at the hologram Deuce, while Patricia added her own sonic scream. Under the combined blasts and with no where to escape, the image of Deuce shattered into pieces.

With the final enemy defeated the program ended and the black walls of the Simulation Room returned. The group came together to be critiqued on their performance by Ace and Zadavia.

"That was great for a first run. I can see how the older team members' powers are going to work in a real battle and how well the newbies managed their new abilities and worked together. I'm pleased with you all." Ace said with a grin.

"I agree, Ace. You all did very well on this first test. However, I was wondering, Tech, if you have developed any tests with more difficult levels. This first battle helped the new members get a feel for their powers, but the test was a tad too easy."

"Naturally, Zadavia. As you said this first test was just a warm up… Something to give everyone a chance to test their abilities. I have programmed various levels of difficulties and even ones to test each individual team member alone. I'm presently working on a prototype test that pits each member against a hologram of themselves, with their strengths and weaknesses but with one exception… they will be two times stronger and faster than the original." Tech explained. 

"Really, that sounds interesting. How far have you progressed with it?" Zadavia asked.

"I've already built the prototype; it just needs to be tested. Would you all like to give it a try right now?" Tech asked his team mates.

"Sounds like fun!" Ace grinned. "Let's have a look!"

Smiling with pleasure, Tech produced a small handheld device, pressing a button a small flying device appeared. It looked nothing more than a mini flying ball. The device zipped to each member and shot out a beam that scanned over the person. Tech tapped in some information and the Simulation Room changed into a Japanese garden filled with flowers of all kinds, a small lake where swans and geese swam freely, and little fireflies flew around cane-plantations that existed on the lake shore. The green grass looked realistic, and even when they touched it, it felt like the real thing.

The flying device shot out a beam and immediately holographic versions of themselves stood before them. These Loonatics looked vastly different from their originals. They had a menacing look about them, with glowing red eyes and powerful claws, similar to talons.

The originals stared at their doubles in fascination but no fear.

"Wow! These look incredible Tech." Ace said.

"Thank you. These holograms will allow us to learn to overcome our weaknesses, making us better fighters. Continual practice should insure that we will be ready for whatever faces us in the future," Tech said proudly. "An excellent idea, Tech." Zadavia said pleased.

"Well, is everyone ready to give it a shot?" Ace asked readying himself.

"Oh yeah, let's go for it." Lexi said enthusiastically.

The other team members nodded their assent and soon they had spread out and took up a stance before their doubles. When all were ready, Tech signalled the start of the session.

Knowing these wouldn't be push overs, Ace decided to use the Guardian Strike Sword to take down his double. He grimaced when his double also chose to use the sword. They were soon bashing at each other.

All the other team members were having the same problems and weren't able to defeat themselves on this first outing. They were quickly creamed by their stronger opponents. When all were defeated, the doubles vanished.

"Woah! Now that was disheartening," Ace said ruefully.

"Well, of course, you couldn't expect to win the first time… That's what the training is for." Tech said smiling a little and rubbing his back side from the hard landing on the floor during his battle.

"Oh yeah, a little humility goes a long way!" Lexi said sarcastically, rubbing her temples to try and rid herself of the headache she'd received from her double's sonic blast.

"That was a sobering test alright, Tech, and one I think is well worth the learning." Zadavia said pleased with the results.

"Well I don't want to end the day on such a depressing note. So what say we do that again only this time everyone pick a different partner? At least, we'll get a chance to test out powers against the abilities of each other. Should be interesting." Ace suggested to the others.

"Well, you're a glutton for punishment, but sure why not!" Duck said still smarting from being defeated by his own double.

Everyone nodded their agreement and Tech made their doubles reappear. Everyone split up and picked a different target. When everyone was in place, Tech started the program again.

This time the results were better. Each team member was able to overcome the holographic Loonatic they'd picked in a matter of minutes. Some fifteen minutes after they'd begun the floor was littered with their targets. The room returned to normal.

"Now that was much better and we learned about each others abilities while doing it." Ace said pleased putting his sword away.

"I agree… an excellent workout Loonatics. I'm proud of your abilities to adapt to changing circumstances so quickly." Zadavia said warmly.

"Nice thinking, Ace… Changing opponents was really a great idea." Lexi said smiling.

"I have to say that I would have never have thought of something like that, mi amigo!" Swift exclaimed, complimenting his leader on his strategy.

"Thank you, Swift." Ace said.

"I want to congratulate you on your fine team work. With more practice, especially against yourselves, you should be able to handle any emergency that comes your way." Zadavia told them as she strode into the Simulation Room.

"Thanks Zadavia… I have to agree with you that we are now a stronger and more agile team." Ace admitted. "But, do you think that we are ready to face anything besides holograms?"

"You won't truly know until you meet your first threat. You'll be able to tell how much work you need in your training sessions. You will be constantly improving yourselves with each new challenge. I'm confident you will meet that challenge to become the greatest super hero team that was ever created." Zadavia assured him. She was interrupted by Tweetums falling to his tiny knees suddenly and rubbing his head as if in pain. 

Everyone quickly gathered around their distressed member as Mimi asked, "Is something wrong, Tweetums?"

"Ohh...my little head hurts...that only happens if something is wrong in my kingdom. I must call my royal sceptre to me and see what could be amiss. He clapped his hands and the sceptre appeared out of nowhere. The sceptre was bonded to Tweetums and responded to his commands. Holding it in his hands, Tweetums intoned, "Royal Sceptre of Blanc, show me what is wrong on my planet!" Within moments, the sceptre began glowing then it projected a holographic image above it. 

At first no one could see anything very clearly then the image sharpened. 

"The little old problem seems to be coming from the prison cells. This can't be good." Tweetums muttered, and then requested a closer look which the sceptre obliged. Now they could see a cell with bars that were twisted and pulled apart. "A prisoner has escaped," Tweetums said as the image vanished."Looks like we have troubles on our first day on the job, here in Blanc… Loonatics, let's jet!" Ace exclaimed running to their weapons room followed by his team.

In a matter of minutes, all of them had grabbed a jet pack, with the exception of Rev and Tweetums who could fly, and exited from the Loonatics Tower. Tweetums lead the way followed close behind by Ace with the rest spread out behind them. 

They reached the huge entrance leading down to the prison corridors of Blanc, and Tweetums was their guide. Zadavia had followed them in her ship and together they swooped down into the bowels of Blanc. On the trip there the newer members learned to control their jet packs. 

The trip to the center of Blanc where the prison cells were, took them about ten minutes. As they flew around the strange shape-looking and colourful corridors, Tech wondered if he would ever get used to living here. Although he was happy he did miss Acmetropolis. His thoughts were interrupted by their arrival on the scene.

Tweetums had already sent some of his troopers to see if they could find out who had escaped and whether they were any clues to allow them to track the person. The cell looked like it had been blown apart. Pieces of rock and twisted metal were lying on the ground and there was the distinctive odour of an explosive having been used. They landed near the mess and contemplated the destruction trying to determine what might have caused it.

"Well, it seems like someone gave a wild party and didn't invite us!" Duck said dryly, looking around at the debris strewn floor.

"The explosion was caused by some kind of weapon but I'm uncertain if it was a plasma cannon or some other type of weapon. A plasma cannon would have melted the bars not caused an explosion and whatever it was, wasn't inside the cell but outside." Tech observed slowly. 

"But, who was inside this cell? This one was more reinforced and had a stringent security system than my own cell. Someone very dangerous and nasty was stashed in here… wasn't it… you yellow canary?" Sylth asked suspiciously, glancing at Tweetums.

"Unfortunately, you are correct, puddy tat. The prisoner in that cell was the most vicious, meanest, person that has ever walked on the surface of my beloved planet. In fact, it was the only one who was considered a true enemy of Blanc, and was sentenced to be locked in here for life." Tweetums said solemnly.

"Oh no! That means…" Lexi began to say...

"Bllarahghgalahl… Queen Granicus!" Slam blurted interrupting Lexi.

"Yes! Queen Granicus. A most dangerous individual!" Tweetums said blackly. "As some of you might know, we don't have the death sentence on Blanc. Instead, serious criminals are sentenced to life in prison. I prayed she would never get free, but now she has. She is not only a danger to my planet, but also to the entire universe." 

"This is grave tidings, Tweetums, but whatever her plans are I'm certain the Loonatics will be able to handle it." Zadavia calmed and reassured them. "This is exactly the situation you were meant for."

"I still have one question! Where could she have gone? Is she still on the planet, and if yes, where? This is so not good, because although Blanc isn't one of the biggest planets in the entire universe, it would take us at least 72 hours, 45 minutes and 17 seconds, according to my calculations, and that is of course, if we all run at normal speed, because if we ran at my speed, would only…" Rev jabbered nervously in his super speed voice.

"E-E-Easy there, Rev… if she ran away, than we have to… we have to… we have to… we need a plan to find her, an f-f-for that, we must gather the clues and figure out w-w-where she is." Pinkster said trying to soothe Rev.

"Pinkster's right… we need to find out what weapon was used to destroy this cell which should lead us to who released her and hopefully to where she's gone." Patricia summed up their course of action. She loved reading detective stories and thought that the best away to solve the problem was to do what detectives always do, find some clues.

"Right, hmm I wonder how could that old lady with her clothes smelling like moth balls be able to get out of here, anyway? And who her accomplice was, because she had to have one to be able get out of here, right?" Duck mused repeating some of what was said hoping it would jar a new idea in his head.

"That's what we're going to have to find out Duck!" Ace said. "Old 'Queenie's' going to let us know soon what her plans are. She can't help it. All crazy despots have to blab about their plans. You can bet your feathers on it." Ace said with certainty as he too studied the cell and tried to imagine what Queen Granicus was up to.


	11. The Aliance of Evil

Chapter 11: The Alliance of Evil

Racing away from Blanc, a Buldogian spaceship piloted by General Vector Bulldog, carried Queen Granicus to freedom. As she stood on the bridge staring out into space, she remembered with intense bitterness, her incarceration by that tiny feathered idiot, Tweetums and her humiliating defeat by his allies the Loonatics. 

As she continued to stare at space rushing by the ship, she asked the General to bring her up to date on what events had occurred in the universe while she had been in jail. He gave her a quick and dirty synopsis. She frowned in concentration as she absorbed the information. 

"So… you say the Loonatics stopped a renegade general, who once worked for their benefactor, from conquering the entire universe and that they had used the Royal Scepter of Blanc on Wormhole Central's CPU to do it?" She asked, her eyes glittering with interest.

"Yes. The renegade was called General Deuce. He tried to kill his former leader, Zadavia, her brother, Optimatus and the Loonatics. The final battle was inside Wormhole Central between Ace and Deuce. Only Ace was seen leaving it, Deuce apparently had disappeared without a trace. He's presumed dead, though personally, I think he may have been transported to another part of the Universe." General Vector told her.

"Hmm, well isn't that a shame… a person with that much ambition and greed would be an excellent addition to my army." She murmured in disappointment.

Vector growled softly. After all the trouble he went to helping her escape prison, this was the thanks he got… her regret that she couldn't have Deuce. It infuriated him.

She paid no attention to his anger and changed the subject. "Your mention of Zadavia has reminded me of a question I've had while I was waiting in that cell. Why was she in Acmetropolis and who were those individuals with her beside Pinkster Pig?"

"I never found out what she was up to and because of that, we should stay alert. She's an excellent strategist and whatever she's doing won't be good for us. One thing I do know is the Loonatics have moved their entire Headquarters to Blanc. It was on all the news feeds." He warned her. 

"Is that so?" She said questioningly, intrigued by this piece of news.

"Yeah, it looks like they've decided to move up in the world by being the protectors for the known universe. However, that doesn't matter, for, once your plan is in motion, nothing will be able to stop us. I was able to gather the individuals you wanted see. They're waiting for us at your base… Asteroid QG 7" Vector said with grim satisfaction.

"How long before we arrive?" The Queen asked returning her gaze outside.

"Should take another two maybe three hours… I'll try to push a little more speed from the engines to get us there sooner." He said as he went to the control board to make the appropriate changes.

"Excellent… I will just sit here and fine tune my revenge plans. I need to think on the best way to put them in motion. I don't wish to be disturbed, so no noise, conversation or music you bothersome canine." She ordered coldly as she went to sit on a bridge station chair.

Meanwhile on Blanc, the Loonatics returned to their tower. They needed to try and figure out where Queen Granicus might have gone and who was helping her.

Tech and Pinkster, aided by Rev, went to the lab. They accessed the security cameras and watched the recorded images from the hallway where Granicus' cell was located, hoping to see what had happened.

In another part of the lab, the rest of the Loonatics were sitting at a large circular table, along with Zadavia, discussing the problem they were facing.

"The shadow of evil is upon us and upon the entire Universe, Loonatics. With Granicus on the loose, we have a very dangerous situation before us." Zadavia said gravely.

"Whatever she's planning must be big. She somehow managed to get help from someone with a lot of power. That's the only way she could have gotten outta that cell. When I worked for her, I knew her as someone who won't make a move without checking for all the angles first." Sylth said tightly, remembering just how ruthless and meticulous the Queen was.

"Well, if Queenie wants a fight, we'll give her one!" Ace said firmly.

"Honestly, Ace, I still don't see what kind of trouble she can cause us. After all, we beat her once and she had the help of Sylth here. I think you're worrying too much. With our new members it will be a piece of cake! I, Danger Duck swear that we'll get her without a problem!" Danger Duck said grandiosely as he stepped onto the table and slapped his chest sending one arm into the air like some knight from the Middle Ages.

"Don't ever say that, Duck… Granicus may be an old lady but she's mean and cunning. If she could get her hands on us she'd execute us without hesitation and you seem to forget, she's not alone in this scheme of hers." Lexi reprimanded Duck angrily. "We need to be prepared for anything she might throw at us. Now is not the time to underestimate the Queen."

"Lexi's right, Sir Duck… I mean, Duck. Granicus is a very powerful and very mean old lady. That's why I, the Royal Tweetums, the rightful holder of the throne of Blanc, have ordered my troops to stand by in case we need them." Tweetums said seriously.

"That's a very good idea, mi amigo, Tweetums. The more help the better. Your troops added to our defense will help us defeat any trouble Granicus might send." Swift said, complimenting his fellow Loonatic.

Their discussions lasted a good two hours as they covered the defense plans Tweetums had made when Tech interrupted with the results of their research. He told them they had found a clue on who was behind the Queen's escape. 

Everyone moved to the other side of the lab to the large computer display screen. Tech had it zoom in on a figure that nobody could see at first until Tech gave the computer orders to sharpen the image. Now they could see the image better. It was a bulldog in a uniform. Tech and Pinkster fed the image into their database to find out who the person was. Some seconds later the computer shot up an image that matched and the resultant data beside it on the screen.

"So, our mystery person is General Vector Bulldog. He's the mastermind responsible for the Queen's escape and the one who executed the break out." Tech said grimly.

"Wow! W-w-what a v-v-v-vicious looking guy." Pinkster said unhappily.

"So, this is the guy who's been barking at Queenie's tree, huh? And you're definitely right about him being a nasty looking guy, Pinkster… He sure isn't mister personality." Ace commented with a grimace.

"So who is he, anyway?" Patricia asked frowning.

"Hmm, according to the database, he's one of the most important generals of the Planet Caninus, a war hero, who's been decorated with a bunch of medals and honours…" Tech told them reading the info off a smaller screen in front of him that gave the dog's resume. "It says here, he's recently been suspected of trafficking weapons of mass destruction around the entire Sapphire Galaxy. It's suspected that he stole them from the Buldogian's top secret armories but no one's been able to prove it.

"Looks like we found evidence to that support that suspicion and now this image from the cell block cinches it that he's the person behind the Queen's escape. I also suspect he's the one behind the android who attacked us in Acmetropolis. But, I have una importante question… If this guy is an illegal weapon's dealer, as you're saying, why is he working for Queen Granicus? It doesn't make any sense." Swift said in concern.

"Power… being able to serve a powerful figure, such as Queen Granicus can further a person's quest for power and I think that is why General Vector sought out the Queen. Greed has corrupted his soul. He cares not for others only his own selfish desires for unlimited power." Zadavia said with disgust.

While the Loonatics tried to determine what Queen Granicus and her new right-hand General were up to, the two under discussion were just arriving at Asteroid GQ 7, the Queen's secret base of operations.

The asteroid looked similar in appearance to the one Optimatus tried to hurl at Acmetropolis. However, it was much darker in color and a bit bigger. It had jagged mountains everywhere. A palace made of the same rock as the asteroid sat at the base of one of the mountain ranges. The exterior was well illuminated. Legions of robots, brought by General Vector from Planet Caninus, were standing at the entrance of the palace, waiting for orders.

Its interior revealed the dark and obscure taste of Queen Granicus. There were dozens of sculpted gargoyles wearing menacing looks in every hall of the palace. The floor was done in blood red tiles. The colour was very similar to real blood. The entire place was an apocalyptic, gothic and psychopathic version of the royal palace of Blanc.

Granicus was thrilled to be home surrounded by her futuristic army. Her plans were set in her mind as she walked in the halls of her palace once more. Vector escorted her into the main foyer where two robots awaited them. One of them told the Queen her guests were waiting for her in the dining room and that dinner would be served in a few minutes. Grinning with evil delight, Granicus walked down a short hall to a set of huge dark doors. General Vector opened the door and revealed her guests seated at the table.

Ophiucus Sam, Electro J. Fudd, and General Melvin the Martian, along with his faithful robotic canine assistant, Sergeant Sirius turned to look at her as she walked in and nodded at her loyal henchman. 

She continued around the table to her seat at the head, the General at her side. She stayed on her feet as he sat next to her. "My dear friends, I'm pleased that you could come. As you know, I have a matter of great importance to discuss with you all. That is why I had General Vector collect you and bring you here. But first, let's have dinner, shall we?" She said as the perfect host. She signalled dinner to be served. She took her seat, still smiling though she was still puzzled as to where her other two villains were. 

Dinner was served. As they were eating the first course, soup, Granicus took the opportunity to talk with Vector. 

"Would you care to explain to me, why Pinkster Pig and that bumbling cat, aren't here, General Vector?" She muttered irately to the white bulldog.

"I'm sorry I can't tell you for certain. The only thing I do know is Pinkster was seen with Zadavia through the eyes of my Canis XLR 3.0 just before it was destroyed. I suspect he and the others I saw with Zadavia were responsible for its destruction. As for Sylth Vester, he wasn't in his cell when I went to free you. I did hear a rumour that he helped the Loonatics defeat Deuce. I can't confirm that. I think he managed to escape before I could get to him." Vector told her bluntly.

"He better have just escaped. If I find out he helped my enemies, I'll rip what's left of his skin off with my bare hands and force him to eat it." She hissed furiously then turned with a polite smile and ordered the fish to be served. This was a delicious Martian sturgeon accompanied by roasted potatoes, Lombard caviar and cabbage.

Melvin was very pleased with that delicacy from his planet and complimented Queen Granicus on her excellent choice.

"I have to say that this is really delicious. Usually, I don't get a chance to eat such succulent dishes as this one, you know? Because most of the time, I blow up the planet before I have the slightest chance of tasting their cuisine." The Martian said as he took another bite and saw Sergeant Sirius picking at a metallic bone with his metal teeth.

"Why, thank you, Melvin, I'm glad you are enjoying it. Now, while you finish this excellent repast pay attention while I explain my plans to defeat the Loonatics once and for all." She said with an evil grin as she picked delicately at her meal. Everyone perked up and gave her their complete attention. "Alright, since my original plan to capture Zadavia and lure them into a trap has failed we'll just move on to plan B." She said sweetly. Her henchmen shuddered but didn't say anything as she continued. "Now, I don't have to tell you how the Loonatics have prevented us from robbing, controlling planets, or from destroying them… we all have our tales to tell… except for General Vector, of course." She said reminding them of their many humiliating defeats.

"That is so true… that wascaly wabbit and his fwiends, made a fool out of me… I swore that I would have my wevenge against them!" Electro J. Fudd said furiously, as he slammed one of his fists on the table.

"I also got a score to settle with those Looneytics, especially with that rabbit, or my name's not Ophi… iccy… whatever!" Ophiucus Sam agreed with Fudd, as he remembered unhappily of the first time he was stopped by the Loonatics. "So, tell us… what is this plan you got to stop that rabbit and his meddlesome friends?" He demanded.

"My plan is simple…" Granicus began as she pushed a button under the table and suddenly a huge screen appeared from the ceiling. "According to the information my associate, General Vector, has gathered, the Loonatics have transferred their Headquarters to Blanc so they can protect the entire Universe. I intend taking over what it's rightfully mine… Planet Blanc, by disposing of that wretched bird, Tweetums. But to do that, I need to get rid of those Loonatics first." She said coldly.

The screen showed Planet Blanc in all its glory. An evil smile spread across her face but didn't reach her eyes which burned with the fires of vengeance.

"That's where you all come in," she continued pressing another button and a new image flashed on the screen. "This is Acmetropolis, the Loonatics home world… My plan is to free all the criminals in the Acmetropolis Maximum Security Prison as well as wreak havoc around the city to attract the Loonatics attention. When they arrive, we will be able to destroy them one by one, with the help of the 'rescued' villains, who will certainly be delighted in participating in this sweet revenge. My question gentlemen is, are you with me?" Granicus asked the group in front of her.

"You can count on me or my name isn't Ophi… iccy… whatever! You can be sure that I will be by your side, once its time to teach those varmints the lesson of their lives!" Sam shouted, shooting a couple of shots into the ceiling.

"I'll teach those wabbits and their fwiends that Electro J. Fudd is the best hunter in the Univewse." Fudd smirked.

"The entire Martian fleet is at your service, Queen Granicus!" Melvin declared as he finished his food.

"Then raise our glasses and make a toast, to a brand new future gentlemen… A future where I will rule the universe and you'll be by my side. To the destruction of the Loonatics!" Queen Granicus proclaimed loudly, downing her drink, her henchmen mimicking her.


	12. We’re like a magnet

Chapter 12: "We're like a magnet that attracts problems."

A week has passed since Queen Granicus escaped from Blanc's prison. Although they didn't know where the former ruler of Blanc went, the Loonatics continued to stay on maximum alert for anything that could lead to Granicus's current location.

The oldest members of the team resumed their daily activities while trying to make their new companions feel like part of the team.

Tech and Rev started to get used to having Pinkster in the lab, helping them with any kind of project that Tech could be developing. With his help, Tech was able to finish the newest models of the Zoomatrixes for the newcomers as well as make a few modifications to the old models, and finish a new prototype laser gun that he had been working on for some time. He was pleased that most of his projects had been completed far faster than he'd imagined thanks to Pinkster's assistance. Tech was thrilled! Now he had two well-qualified assistants in the lab. He knew the added help would insure they would keep on top of inventions needed to fight crime on a larger scale.

Tweetums was having a harder time learning to function as part of a super-hero team. The reason was, unlike his fellow team mates, he was still the leader of a planet. Its needs sometimes took precedent to his duties as a team member. This stretched him to the limits on time as he had to continue his training as a Loonatic. His solution was to have his advisors come to him at a specific time each day to discuss affairs concerning the planet's welfare. He also insured he was accessible for those times when his knowledge or advice was urgently needed. His council might not have liked it but it was the best he could do.

Ace and Sylth spent a great deal of their time honing their abilities in the Simulation Room. A major part of it was sword fighting. Though Ace's ability with the Guardian Strike Sword was admirable, but Sylth was no slouch with a blade. Their practice fights did much to sharpen and enhance their skills. They would go for hours before stopping, dripping with sweat and pleased with the results. 

Duck and Slam hung around with Swift, and sometimes with Pinkster when he wasn't working in the lab. They'd sit in the living area and related stories about their lives, adventures they'd been on, and life in general. It gave them a better feel for each other.

The female members of the team, Lexi, Mimi and Patricia decided to explore their new home on Blanc. They took long walks through the beautiful palace gardens. The privacy afforded them the opportunity to experiment with their powers in an outdoor setting. Mimi enjoyed it the most. She adored changing herself into other people then making funny scenes in her altered form.

The Loonatics were having a good time enjoying this period of peace but they didn't forget the danger still hanging over them. The down time however, helped them recharge their batteries, as it were, and allowed them to explore themselves, their powers, and their new home before Queen Granicus reappearance would thrust them into the fight of their lives.

Zadavia used the time to deal with her advisor's long distance on her home world, rested, and got in some practice in the Simulation Room as well. She had long talks with the newest members and discussed strategy with Ace and Sylth. She had decided to stay on Blanc for a bit longer. She wanted to be on hand when the Loonatics encountered Queen Granicus. When the Queen was defeated and the planet was at peace only then would Zadavia finally go home.

About a week later, after a gruelling day-long session in the Simulation Room, the exhausted team dragged themselves to the kitchen for a light snack before hitting the hay. Ace was barely able to stand. He had spent the day giving orders, trying new tactics, and generally whipping the group into a cohesive team. For the newest members this was a difficult time. None had ever done things like this with the exception of Sylth. But despite that hardship, Ace was pleased with the day's workout. Everyone had done very well. He felt confident about their abilities to function together in a fight.

In the kitchen, Ace asked Duck to get a bunch of pizzas out of the freezer, since they were too tired to cook, and used his heat vision to cook them swiftly. The group gave a ragged cheer as the hot pizzas were cut and served.

"Well, dig in guys! Don't want them to get cold!" Ace said in a deceptively chipper voice. He didn't want to let on just how tired he was.

"Hey, don't you dare to eat all the slices with the anchovies, Slam!" Sylth protested making a grab for one of the pizzas.

"Blaagarhallahgh… But I like anchovies!" Slam argued trying to take two pizzas but Sylth managed to grab one anyway. Slam sulked a bit but ate his pizza. The rest just ignored them, loaded up their plates and grabbed drinks then sat in the living area to eat.

Soon the only sound was happy munching of hungry Loonatics. When the meal was finished, they pitched in to clean up before saying good night and parting for their rooms.

At that precise moment, a Martian space fleet was approaching Acmetropolis. Inside the mother ship, piloted by General Melvin the Martian himself, was Queen Granicus along with her allies, ready for a full scale invasion, with only one objective, creating havoc to attract the Loonatics into a carefully planned trap. Among the Martian fleet was General Vector's ship. He was carrying the robotic army for Granicus.

"We're approaching Acmetropolis, Queen Granicus… What do you want to do?" Melvin asked the mastermind of the plan.

"Order your fleet to stay in orbit and to await further instructions. I only want to use your fleet in case of an emergency. The rest of us will be visiting a few persons at the Acmetropolis Maximum Security Prison to see if they are willing to join us in the fun to come." She told him. "Also, instruct General Vector to follow us down and land near us." She added grinning maliciously.

Melvin nodded his understanding and quickly relayed the orders. Within minutes, he guided his personal ship down to the surface followed by General Vector. Dawn was arriving, casting a gorgeous silhouette o f the tallest building in Acmetropolis on the horizon. As they made to land right beside the prison walls, their minds were contemplating that in just a few hours the city would be reduced to ruins. 

As they stood before the gates watching as the guards, all armed raced to meet them, Sam pulled his weapons.

"Let me blast this gate! I'm sure that I'll be able to blow this thing with my proton laser gun, or my name's not Ophi… iccy… whatever!" Sam yelled with glee preparing to shoot.

"Wait!" Granicus shouted. He looked at her in confusion. "You'll have your chance to blow up things, my friend. But first, I want to demonstrate my power to the ones who are trapped here, so they know who they are dealing with." She smirked evilly. 

She produced an odd looking sceptre. It sort of resembled the Sceptre of Blanc but instead of being bright it was dark and looked like a dark rose with thorns coming out of the stem. The uncut jewel was blood-red in colour. 

"This is called the Dark Sceptre of Blanc. It's capable of absorbing the evil that lies in a person. The more evil that person possesses the stronger and more powerful the sceptre will be." She cackled as she activated it.

Pointing the jewel at the gates she fired a blood-red ray which blasted the gates forcing them open. The guards ran out trying to stop them. She used the sceptre to gather them in a force bubble and levitate them into the air then released the guards to crash to the ground in a broken heap. Any guards still loose were quickly disarmed by Fudd and Sam.

They continued in this way until there was no opposition by the time they reached the maximum security wing of the prison. As they strode boldly down the cell block, the prisoners eyed them with some trepidation. After all, they didn't know what these creepy people wanted with them.

Some did recognize the intruders like Sam, Melvin and Fudd but none knew the female or the bulldog. They watched and waited expectantly.

Queen Granicus stopped before a cell and looked at the prisoner. The occupant was a huge person. He was called Massive and had fought the Loonatics on a frequent basis. He eyed this wicked looking old lady with curiosity.

"Who are you?" He growled in a deep voice.

"I am Queen Granicus, the rightful ruler of planet Blanc. You and I, along with everyone who's in this maximum security wing have a common enemy… the Loonatics. I have a plan to destroy them once and for all. Would you like to join us in bringing this city to its knees and in the process draw the Loonatics to their doom?" She asked smiling wickedly.

"Are you kidding, lady?! Of course I would like to crush those insolent Loonatics! It's their fault that I and everyone here are trapped in this disgusting prison." Massive shouted.

"Then you must swear your loyalty to me, Queen Granicus, and you'll have the opportunity to create havoc and chaos in Acmetropolis, as well as witness the destruction of those who put you here!" She declared then turned to look at all the faces staring at her from their cells. "The same offer is extended to all of you. Swear your allegiance to me and you'll get a piece of the action too!" 

None really trusted her, but for the chance to be free and see the Loonatics destroyed they would be willing to swear to anything. The fact that some would probably betray her didn't matter to the Queen. There were cheers and shouts of agreement up and down the cell block.

Sam noticed an odd prisoner trying to communicate with him. The prisoner was in a giant aquarium. The creature was one of the most dangerous criminals the Loonatics had ever dealt with. He was called Adolpho, the mutant dolphin.

"Hey, lookey here! This fish is trying to say something but I can't understand a thing he says." Sam pointed out to the Queen. 

"No problem! The sceptre will give us the ability to understand him." She said pointing the sceptre at the creature. A purple ray shot out this time and hit Adolpho. Seconds later, they could understand him.

"I said that I'll swear loyalty to anyone in this place if that gets me out of here and a little bit closer to my revenge… I want that rabbit's head, for calling me "Flipper"!" Adolpho said angrily.

"Agreed!" She said gleefully then addressed the cell block. "As soon as I free you all, your mission is this… Create as much havoc and destruction as you can. Rob, pillage, destroy whole buildings, and make people run for their lives… by tonight we'll drink to the end of the Loonatics and the ruin of a city… hahahahahaha!" She laughed maniacally as she pointed the sceptre.

The villains cheered and poured out of their cells and followed the Queen and her crew out of the prison. As soon as they cleared the destroyed gates, the criminals went their own ways. Queen Granicus smiled in triumph as she watched them disappear then she turned to General Vector.

"Vector! Activate your robots and begin the attack." She ordered him. 

He nodded and went to his ship and began the activation. When the robots were all up and running he gave them their orders and released them from the ship.

As they stood in formation, he gave them their orders. "You are to create panic among the citizenry, destroy buildings and vehicles, whatever it takes to make more chaos but no one is to be killed. The only ones that are to be put to death are the Loonatics. Commence Codename: "Revenge"." He ordered them. The robots took off in ranks to do as ordered.

Granicus watched her robot army on the move and was very pleased. The beginning of the screams of terror from the citizenry was music to her ears.

"Perfect! The rest of you, do what you're best at but remember, I don't want you to kill anyone but the Loonatics. Understand?" She demanded of her henchmen. When they nodded, she said, "Good! Everything is going as I planned. In a matter of hours, the Loonatics will be annihilated then nothing will stop me from taking what's rightfully mine... nothing!" She gloated.

As the Queen began her attack against Acmetropolis, the howl of an alarm was heard in Loonatics Headquarters. 

Jerking awake and stumbling around their rooms, the Loonatics quickly got dressed and raced for the communications room. Zadavia was already there and viewing the news on Acmetropolis. She turned toward them as they charged in behind her. She was relieved the alarm system she placed at police headquarters was working well and it was they who had activated it and summoned them. They sat down at the new holographic table that Tweetums had installed to accommodate the addition of their new members.

"The situation is a lot worse than I had expected, Loonatics. Queen Granicus has allied herself with some of the most dangerous villains of this Universe. Take a look at this…" Zadavia said, as she turned on the holographic table device, exhibiting a few images. "This was taken from a security camera at Acmetropolis Maximum Security Prison, just thirty minutes ago."

As they watched the images, the older team members saw all the worst scum they had jailed while the newcomers only recognized the ones that made the news.

"Look at that! Granicus has surrounded herself with Melvin the Martian, Ophiucus Sam, Electro J. Fudd, and a few more of our old enemies." Lexi said in distress.

"According to the news reports, there was a mass escape from the prison's maximum security wing. As you can see, Queen Granicus and General Vector are responsible for it and, to make matters worse, there is a fleet of Martian spaceships in orbit above the planet. It looks like they have planned a full scale invasion of Acmetropolis. Reports of robots running amok, creating chaos, are adding to the problem." Zadavia told them gravely.

"There's no doubt they are trying to draw us in! It's a trap!" Patricia warned. 

"Yeah! You're probably right about that, Patricia. We put all those guys behind bars, including Pinkster here… No offence buddy, and if they were already angry with us for that you can imagine how they feel after being locked up for a while. Furious doesn't even cover it. You know, come to think of it, this is almost like a poetic vengeance, except that we're not the ones who are going to get revenge on them, it's them that want to get revenge on us! Think of the trouble we are going to have trying to round up those guys again…" Rev raced on excitedly.

"Just look at all of them! Sagittarius Stomper, Stoney and Bugsy, Time Skipper, Mastermind, Otto the Odd, Dr. Zane, Weathervane, Drake Sypher, the Ringmaster, Massive… most of our archenemies are there… Granicus sure picked a nasty bunch of tough cookies to hang out with. This could really mean trouble." Tech said worriedly.

"Sufferin' succotash! And that's not all… Look, she has the Dark Sceptre of Blanc!" Sylth said in shock, pointing to the image of the Queen holding the dark sceptre and blasting the cell doors open.

"Blalrghhglahaghr…What's the Dark Sceptre of Blanc?" Slam asked, puzzled.

"It's the twin to mine only it uses power so evil and so malevolent that it is supposed to have enough power to destroy a planet with one single blow." Tweetums said angrily. "Everyone thought it had been lost during the Intergalactic War." 

"O-o-obviously it wasn't l-l-lost. We must… We must… We must… We have to do something." Pinkster said urgently.

"I agree with Pinkster, amigos. We have to do algo, and rapido!" Swift urged, agreeing with his friend.

"But one thing we don't know yet. Why did Queen Granicus set free all those guys? I mean, it's nothing personal, but I always thought that she wanted to rule Blanc and not another planet. Why would she do this, especially with an entire fleet on her side and robots?" Patricia asked in confusion.

"I can tell you what she's not going to do…she's not going to start a health club and a spa. I think this a job for the greatest hero team in the universe, Pinkster and Danger Duck!" Duck shouted in his larger than life speech voice.

"Would you zip it, Duck! We're talking about a serious thing here, and you come up with those things! Can't you at least stop with it, for at least two minutes?!" Mimi said, glaring at him.

"Hey, hey, hey… you guys, let's not start a war between ourselves, ok? Mimi, take a deep breath and calm down, and Duck, drop the arrogant act. You're not the most important member of the team. The real fight is in Acmetropolis, against all of those villains." Lexi ordered firmly. "We have to concentrate and focus because this may well be the biggest fight of our lives."

"I agree with Lexi. We need to stay calm. Those guys can smell "f-e-a-r" a hundred miles away folks, and we don't want to give them that pleasure. Sometimes, I think that we are like a magnet that attracts problems." Ace told them firmly then turned to Tech, "When can we leave?"

"Immediately, if you want. Over the past few days, I devised a remote control to operate "Wormhole Central". So now we can just introduce the coordinates from here to go any place in the known Universe without having to go to central to do it." Tech told him.

"Perfect! You know what to do Tech! Everyone, we're going to Acmetropolis." Ace ordered.

"I'm going with you!" Zadavia told them. "I'm also going to call my brother to help us. You're going to need all the help you can get." She added looking at Ace as she got up from her chair.

"Thanks Zadavia, we appreciate your help. Okay, Loonatics, we have a planet to save and a bunch of bad guys to lock up in prison again, not to mention an ex-queen who thinks she can just destroy whatever she wants. Let's jet!" Ace called out.


	13. The Never Ending Battle

Chapter 13: The Never-Ending Battle

In a matter of minutes, the Loonatics boarded their spaceship. Tech had refitted their ship to accommodate the additional crew and upgraded all its equipment. New control boards, quarters, seats, labs, engines, and weaponry had been completed in time for this first mission as a larger team. Everyone took their seats and, in little time, they were headed for space. On the way, Zadavia sent a message to Optimatus urging him to join the team in what promised to become the battle of a lifetime. Tech activated the wormhole with the coordinates for Acmetropolis laid in and as soon as they left the planet's gravity field they dove into it.

As usual, the trip through the wormhole was quick and soon they were able to see their destination surrounded by the Martian fleet. Using stealth technology, they avoided detection and plunged into the atmosphere.

In a matter of minutes, they saw that the battle had already begun. There was mayhem in the streets, people were running for their lives, and it seemed that every scoundrel of that city-planet had decided to show up and demonstrate that they were ready to party all night long.

"Geez, we leave here only a couple of days ago and now look at it! It's falling apart!" Duck said sarcastically.

"We're going to take a few extra hours on this one. I hope you brought your toys, Tech, because we're really going to need them." Lexi said in dismay, as she watched the growing destruction on the monitors as they approached.

"Not to worry! I brought everything we could need. Grapple Guns, Gluco-Gel 9000, Retrofire Master Blaster's, among other things… we've got everything we're going to need to stop this situation." Tech assured her. "Plus, I developed these transmitters, equipped with a translator, just in case we find someone who doesn't speak English." He added with pride.

"We'd better get down there before things get even uglier. Zadavia, you stay aboard ship and direct us to where we're needed. To the Zoomatrixes everyone!" Ace rapidly gave orders as they flew in close over the park.

Following Ace's lead, the Loonatics got on their Zoomatrixes and exited the ship. These newer models of the Zoomatrixes were faster and more manoeuvrable than the older ones. When they were near the ground, they disengaged the flight and activated the ground mode, turning the Zoomatrixes into motorcycles. When people saw the Loonatics appearing out of nowhere, they gave a ragged cheer while still trying to stay out of harm's way. Their first stop was a jewellery store that was being robbed. The Loonatics dismounted and hurried inside the store. The thieves were stunned to see them so quickly. They'd been told there would be lots of time to do what they came for first. Unprepared to meet the super heroes, they panicked. Some dropped their loot and tried to run while others lifted their weapons and fired on the approaching Loonatics. The first to tackle them was Patricia as she used her psychic powers to create a barrier blocking their weapon's fire then placed a bubble of energy around the crooks.

"Let's see if you can get out of that, boys." She said with a smirk, blowing them a kiss then she tightened the bubble until there was no air and held it long enough so that the crooks passed out.

Mimi used the Gluco-Gel 9000 to encase them in a sticky gel that Tech had invented to keep them from escaping before the police collected them. One problem solve, many more to go. Ace stepped outside the store with the Loonatics at his back and took stock of the chaos. Frowning, he knew the team would have to split up to be able to tackle all that was going on. He quickly notified Zadavia of the criminals needing picked up then laid out his plan to his team.

"Okay, listen up guys! Time to split up into teams, each taking a section of city. The teams and section are as follows: Lexi, Tweetums and Tech, you go south… Swift, Duck and Pinkster, you go east… Mimi, Patricia and Rev, you go west… and finally, Slam, Sylth and I will go north. Synchronize your communicators on channel one, stay in touch with Zadavia, call for help if you need it...don't wait until you're overwhelmed...got it! You especially Duck!" Ace warned Duck who was prone to try and handle things on his own. "One last thing... if you find Queen Granicus… don't try to fight her… wait until we are together. Any questions?" Ace asked, when none came, he shouted, "Loonatics, let's take back the city from these creeps!"

The team gave grave nods all around and raced for their Zoomatrixes and were soon heading off in different directions. Their presence was noted and an image of them transmitted by a Canis XLR 3.0 to the control centre inside the Martian mother ship. General Vector and Melvin were monitoring all the action below when they received the warning of the Loonatics presence.

They checked the image sent with the files for the team and verified their identity though they were shocked to note the group had increased in size. They were equally shocked to see two they thought were still on their side, among the heroes. Melvin turned to his canine companion, Sergeant Sirius. "Go get the Queen immediately!" He snapped.

The Sergeant saluted and raced away. Only a few minutes later, Queen Granicus appeared. Seeing the screen, she hissed in fury. "That can't be right!" She muttered then turned to the General, her eyes snapping with anger, "Are you sure that androids camera is functioning properly?" She demanded, pointing back at the image.

"Completely, I've checked it twice. It's exactly as you see it...twelve Loonatics, instead of six. This explains who those people were that accompanied Zadavia that night I tried to capture her." He growled in annoyance. "I'm certain that's Pinkster Pig right there. The cat and bird look strangely familiar but I can't think why and they weren't with Zadavia that night." He admitted.

"Of course they look familiar, you inept canine! Those two are Tweetums and Sylth Vester! I recognize those two, no matter what they're wearing! If you have any doubts, just call up their images from the files." She snapped in irritation. Melvin the Martian did as she suggested. Soon two sets of images were being compared with the one taken by the android. Just as she'd said the pair was plainly their erstwhile partner in crime Sylth Vester, and the other, the present ruler of Blanc, Tweetums. The computer verified their assumptions.

"Oh my, it's a match… you were right, Queen Granicus." Melvin said as he stared at the twin images on the screen.

"Then the rumours about what happened on Blanc are…" Vector began before he was interrupted. "Yes, they were all true. That backstabbing cat has betrayed me, and worst yet, he has allied himself with the Loonatics and with that wretched bird! If there's anything I can't forgive is high treason to my own person and that feline, just made the biggest mistake of all his nine lives!" Granicus screamed as she used her sceptre to obliterate the monitor where the zoomed image of Sylth Vester and Tweetums hung.

"What should we do? Are we going to restrict ourselves to the original plan or do you have any other ideas?" Vector asked, frowning in concern over this new information.

"No, I've got another plan… a plan that will ensure not only the destruction of the Loonatics, but also their humiliation, and the proof that I deserve to rule not only over Blanc, but over the entire Universe! Call Ophiucus Sam and Electro J. Fudd and tell them that they should abandon whatever they are doing… I have a job for them." Granicus ordered with an evil grin.

As the Loonatics raced through the streets, people cheered them. The police looked relieved and quickly informed the Loonatics where they could find some of the escaped prisoners and accepted the information about where to pick up the ones the heroes had already dispatched. Duck, Pinkster and Swift, arrived at Acmetropolis Bay to witness huge waves slamming on the beaches and sea walls getting higher and higher and further out in the bay huge whirlpools. The escaped criminal Adolpho, the mutant dolphin, had given orders to all the sea creatures to stir up the water creating the whirlpools that rocked the boats at the docks and created bigger and bigger waves. He intended to flood the city.

"We have to stop those whirlpools somehow or a good portion of the city will be flooded in a matter of horas!" Swift said worriedly as he watched the whirlpools spin faster and faster forming towering water spouts.

"This has got to be the work of that crazed mutant dolphin, Adolpho!" Duck said tightly. "He's using his mind controlling ability to command the aquatic creatures. We need to find him and put him out of commission, before this entire city becomes the new lost continent of Atlantis." He said grimly watching a particular large wave moving toward them.

The three altered their Zoomatrixes into water skis machines and rode the wave as it came crashing over the docks causing the boats to crash into each other and splinter to pieces. As they raced over the choppy water fighting to keep control of their vehicles, they searched for the dolphin. It wasn't easy as the waves kept getting higher and higher and they had to avoid the whirlpools.

Finally, Duck spotted the evil dolphin on a hover boat. He was on the bow watching the action of his minions with his dolphin guards standing on either side of him. Duck quickly came up with a plan. They had to hurry.

"We're going to split up. Pinkster, old buddy, you're with me. We're going to take out old fish face. Swift, I need you to try and change the direction of those whirlpools." Duck ordered.

"That's going to be real difficult without a hard surface, mi amigo, but I'll try." Swift said grimly.

"You can do it! I believe in you! Now let's go!" Duck said as he gunned his Zoomatrix toward the hover boat, followed closely by Pinkster.

Swift raced for the closest whirlpool. Duck and Pinkster got as close as they could but Adolpho had seen them and sent a pod of orcas to try and eat them. They managed to avoid nearly all of them until one got lucky. It flew into the air and gulped the pair off their vehicles and plunged into the water. Duck escaped by teleporting and Pinkster turned to liquid and oozed out of the creature's blow hole when it expelled the water through it. They quickly made for their Zoomatrixes again and raced back toward the dolphin. Adolpho was ticked.

"Those two Loonatics are starting to get on my nerves… They might not be that stupid rabbit, but I'll be glad to get rid of them" Adolpho snarled as he leapt into the water along with his bodyguards.

Once in the sea, the mutant dolphin summoned some swordfish to take out the pair, and make shish kebab out of them. But due to their recent training, Pinkster and Duck avoided them. Duck used his Aqua Dense ability to hurl them away, and then turned it on Adolpho throwing him from the water along with his henchmen. When the criminals were flung out of the water, Pinkster was ready and turned his arms into some kind of glowing yellow energy, manipulating it until it formed a net. He quickly threw it over the three before they could recover.

They were firmly wrapped up and flopping around on the deck of their hover craft. Nearby, Swift had stopped his craft and leapt off. Letting the water snatch him into the whirlpool he began to swing his legs in as fast as he could, running against the direction of the whirlpool breaking its rhythm putting an end to it. Pleased by his success, he quickly ran over the water, without almost touching it, and he did the same in each of the various whirlpools, putting a stop to the huge waterspouts. A little bit wet, but happy, he signalled his craft to him and was soon speeding toward his other team mates, who were waiting for him with the prisoners on their boat. Pinkster was still holding the net around them.

The criminal snarled in his high pitched dolphin speak, "You're going to pay for this, Duck! The same goes for that puny mouse and fat pig!"

"You know, I don't think it's such a good thing that these transmitters allow us to hear old fish face. I don't know about you guys but I've had enough of this garbage." Duck said in disgust as he shut his transmitter off.

The others grinned in agreement and shut theirs off as well. Not wanting to leave Pinkster to hold the net any longer, Swift pulled out his Gluco-Gel 9000 weapon and shot at the three, encasing them in a sphere. He had made sure water was enclosed with them. They shoved it overboard, then Swift and Pinkster jumped overboard while Duck teleported to their Zoomatrixes.

Since it floated, the three had a little fun pushing the ball of gel toward the shore making the criminals inside roll against each. Once they reached the shore they altered their Zoomatrixes back to street bikes and pulled the bubble to shore and handed them over to the police waiting there. As they moved away to look for more trouble, Zadavia contacted them through one of the big animated billboards that were common in the city.

"Duck, Swift, Pinkster… You did a great job, stopping Adolpho from flooding the city…" She said warmly.

"You don't have to thank us, boss-lady, it was our pleasure. Besides, whenever Danger Duck is on the job, nothing can go wrong!" Duck said pompously.

"But, it's not over yet, Duck! You need to focus and help the others and, one more thing, try not to destroy anything while you're taking any villain down, please, Zadavia out." She warned before winking out.

"Y-Y-You heard, Z-Z-Zadavia. We h-h-have to… We h-h-have to… We h-h-have to… We better go help, the o-o-others." Pinkster said as they began to move down the street. His attention was caught to a pair of individuals in a car who were passing near them at high speed. "B-B-But first, I h-h-have to… I h-h-have to… I h-h-have to… I need to do something. S-S-Something I s-s-should've done a l-l-long time ago." He said grimly, turning his bike to chase after the car.

Caught by surprise, his two team mates had continued on. Realizing Pinkster was hot on the trail of the speeding car they quickly changed direction and raced to catch up with him. The two individuals Pinkster had spotted were Stoney and Bugsy, his ex-henchmen. They had just robbed a few pawn shops and an expensive restaurant, and were now making their getaway. Unfortunately for them, they had crossed paths with their former boss and Pinkster was not going to let them get away.

His bike was much faster than their car so was soon beside them and forcing them off the road. Completely rattled and none to smart, the pair decided to make a run for it.

"Come on; let's get out of here, before the Loonatics get us." Stoney said grabbing some of the loot and his gun.

"You got it, boss… I'm right behind ya." Bugsy grunted grabbing his own bag and gun.

Bugsy got out of the car followed by Stoney. They didn't get two steps before the three Loonatics surrounded them.

"Well, well, I-I-It s-s-seems to me that you h-h-haven't change a bit, since the last time, I s-s-saw… I s-s-saw… I s-s-saw… I put my eyes on you two, Stoney and B-B-Bugsy." Pinkster growled.

"What are you talking about? I never seen you before in my life," Stoney said in confusion. Bugsy's face showed the same confusion.

"It seems they don't recognize you, mi amigo." Swift said in amusement. "I-I-It seems so, Swift." Pinkster said in disgust agreeing with his friend.

"W-W-Well then, let me refresh y-y-your memory, gentlemen. Y-Y-You know me as P-P-Pink the Pug, b-b-but my true name is P-P-Pinkster Pig." He told the pair.

"It's the boss, boss." Bugsy said stupidly.

"N-N-Not anymore, boys… I changed sides and you c-c-can consider y-y-yourselves… c-c-can consider y-y-yourselves… c-c-can consider y-y-yourselves… You are u-u-under arrest, Stoney and B-B-Bugsy." Pinkster said flatly.

"You heard my friend, boys. Drop everything you got and put your filthy paws in the air, where all three of us can see them." Duck said coolly as he created one of his morph orbs and put himself in position, just in case he had to throw it.

"No way, blast them, Bugsy!" Stoney said stupidly and pulled his gun.

The two barely had the change to raise their pistols before Swift had disarmed them. They stood there with their mouths hanging open and staring at their suddenly empty hands. In amused disgust, Pinkster shot them with the Gluco-Gel. They fell to the ground, the bags of money and jewels stuck to them.

"A-A-And that's all folks, at l-l-least for you t-t-two. A-A-And one more thing, y-y-you are fired!" Pinkster told his ex-henchmen.

"Let me contact Zadavia, so she can tell the cops where to pick up these two." Duck said as he called her on his communicator. Zadavia accepted the message and told them where they should go next. They hopped onto their bikes and were racing off to the next battle.

While Duck, Pinkster and Swift fought their way through the city, trying to locate any of the other Loonatics, Patricia, Rev and Mimi were having their own share of trouble. They had found a huge group of Canis XLR 3.0 and Canis XLX 5000. Both models were proving to be quite tough to destroy, especially the Canis XLX 5000, because they were faster than the others, making themselves a very hard target. Every time they managed to destroy one, three more seemed to appear out of nowhere to take its place then they saw that those androids were not the only things they had to worry about, for behind them, two old fiends of the Loonatics, Sypher and Massive, appeared.

"Well, if it ain't that speedy bird, Sypher. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to kick some Loonatics tail!" Massive smirked evilly, speaking to his partner.

"You can have him, Massive. While you're having a conversation with that road runner, I'll be glad to meet the new girls, and perhaps, get something from them, besides their cell phone numbers." Sypher smirked lasciviously.

"We really are in big trouble, now. Not that we weren't trouble before, for we had a lot of androids to get rid off, and they just look to keep coming and all, but now we have two of our greatest enemies ready to jam into a fight. I sure hope you girls are ready for this, because these two are no pushovers…" Rev rattled on tensely.

"Don't worry, these bozos don't scare us." Patricia said firmly.

"Whoa, the kitty has claws… I'm so going to love to absorb your powers, kitty cat." Sypher promised malevolently.

They lunged at their adversaries with mixed results. Rev thought he could race around Massive and confuse him but it didn't quite work that way. Though he did manage to take out androids for Rev by trying to punch the road runner. Rev realized very quickly that he wasn't going to be able to take out in his usual way he suddenly remember he had another ability that might.

"If I remember correctly, Tech told me that, if I ran fast enough, I would become a firebird then I could melt the asphalt under the creeps' feet, creating the perfect trap. Better hurry, the girls and I aren't going to keep them at bay much longer.' Rev thought quickly to himself. 'Alright let's rock and roll."

With that last thought he began to run like he never had before. After a few seconds, the fastest road runner in Acmetropolis, if not in the Universe, broke his own speed record and turned himself into a fire bird, just like a phoenix. This form of Rev started to melt the asphalt, making it look like a black and sticky goo, similar to bubblegum. The androids that were close to him were thrown into the sky, because of Rev's speed. Mimi saw what Rev intended to do. She quickly changed her form and wrapped herself around Massive then bounced him up and down like a yo-yo. When she built enough momentum, she released him sending his body flying into the gooey asphalt. He stuck like a fly.

Meanwhile, Patricia was playing keep away with Sypher. She knew if he managed to touch her he would take her powers. She didn't intend for a creep dressed like a jester to get the better of her. She used her sonic scream to send him crashing into a wall, stunning him then encircled him with one of her psychic bubbles. She carried him to wear Massive was trying to get out of the asphalt. Using her abilities, she pulled him from the goo and held them suspended so that Mimi could encase them in Gluco-Gel.

"Well, that takes care of that. You want to call Zadavia or shall I?" Mimi asked. "You go ahead, sis, and one more thing… We did great, give me five, sis!" Patricia grinned happily extending her hand out to her sister. Mimi grinned back and slapped her hand against Patricia's before engaging her comm. and contacting Zadavia.

"Whoa!!! Now that was an amazing fight! Did you see how fast I was going to? I mean, you had to, because I looked like lightning or something even faster, but then again, you might have not seen me, because if I was going really, really fast, you would probably need a special device to see me… But you know what? That doesn't matter, not only did we kicked Massive's and Sypher's butt, but we also managed to eliminate all the androids that were bugging us. This really has to go into my score book… But to do that, I think I'll have to create one, because I don't have one, and if I…" Rev burbled on rapidly.

"Whoa, slow it, Rev… I think we got the picture." Patricia said in amusement, trying to calm down the road runner.

"Okay, we can't stop to chit chat. We still have a lot of work to do, before we can stop and talk calmly." Mimi said as she finished her comm. call. "Zadavia said we've gotten the worst of the criminals this direction and now need to head back toward city centre till we meet up with the others." She told them as she headed for her Zoomatrix. As she waited for her friends to mount theirs, she looked toward the city centre. She had a feeling the true battle was yet to come.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

In this chapter, we get a close up of the battle, and the next one will give us the conclusion of the battle. Finally, the end is near, or not? Find out next chapter, my friends!


	14. The Trap

Chapter 14: The Trap

While Duck and Rev's teams headed back into city centre, the team led by Lexi on the south side was running into a real tricky problem and they were being kept too busy to solve it quickly.

Tech, Tweetums and Lexi had dispatched a great number of B-Dog Annihilators, who had broken into the Acmetropolis First National Bank. Unfortunately, they kept reassembling themselves as soon as they had been dispatched thanks to Mastermind, Tech's former university colleague who used her powers to put androids back together as soon as the Loonatics took them apart wearing the team down quickly.

"We've got to do something to stop her or we'll drop from exhaustion." Lexi warned as went into a somersault to avoid a laser beam fired by one of the androids. 

"Maybe we should just even the odds a bit and teach that mean old lady a lesson, guys… back off and let me try something!" Tweetums ordered them and then began to grow to an enormous size. Very quickly he was tall enough to touch the ceiling. Wasting no time, he began to stomp on the androids like they were ants and kicked their pieces everywhere making putting them together more difficult.

Mastermind was so stunned by this turn of events she failed to reassemble her army she until he nearly destroyed them all. Shaking off her shock, she concentrated and assembled most of the androids into one as big as Tweetums. The android proceeded to punch out Tweetums. Not to be outdone, the ruler of Blanc gave as good as he got. 

"Thought you were so smart… well I'm smarter… try to defeat that Loonatics!" Mastermind laughed as her android pounded Tweetums.

"I think it's time you started picking on someone your own size, Mastermind!" Lexi snarled at the criminal then gave a quick order to the giant bird. "Tweetums, get down!" As soon as he shrunk back to normal size she used her Ballistic Bunny Blast on the huge android blasting it to pieces breaking Mastermind's control.

Tech who had slipped up close to her, attempted to use a new gadget to trap her. Unfortunately, despite her being busy reassembling parts to throw at Lexi and Tweetums, Mastermind had caught sight of Tech and made one of her androids fire everything it had at the coyote.

Tech was vaporized but before she could gloat over her success, he regenerated before her shocked eyes.

"Sorry, Mallory, but you can't kill me that easily." Tech told her as he used his magnetic powers to send bits of androids at her to cause a distraction while his team mates snuck up on her.

"Is that the best you can do... you dog?" She smirked cruelly as she had her few remaining androids destroy the debris before it reached her.

"No, but my luck is about to change." He said grinning at her coldly.Before she could make sense of what he meant, Lexi slipped up behind Mastermind, shot a leg to her back, sending her flying where Tweetums used his levitation power to keep her suspended in the air, startling her so badly that she lost her concentration. In those precious seconds, Tech was finally able to fire his new device.

It was actually a portable and stronger version of the confinement crystal he had created to contain Mastermind in her jail cell. The Glassix-Prison Bubble surrounded her in a crystal orb, effectively neutralizing her powers. With her abilities cut off, the androids fell to pieces

"See? I was right, I told you that my luck was about to change and one more thing, Mallory, for the last time, I'm not a dog, I am a coyote!!!" Tech snapped angrily, has he pushed a few buttons on the control device for his latest creation. "I set a few codes so that the only ones able to free you are us or the police. Have a nice day, Mallory." He said with a smirk.

With Mastermind out of commission, Tech and the others went back outside to see if they could do anything else in that part of town. The police arrived to take Mastermind into custody and reported no more criminals in the area. Climbing on her Zoomatrix, Lexi tried to call Zadavia to find out where they were needed next only to be met with silence. This wasn't good but before they could discuss what this might mean and take some action there was a sudden loud explosion a few miles away. Fearing criminals were destroying something they set off at high speed for the source of the noise.

What they were about to find out was the explosion had been caused by their leader, Ace. He, Sylth, and Slam had run into Weathervane who was using her powers to make buildings explode from a build up of static electricity within its structure.

They managed to put her out of commission by using Slam's icy breath to freeze her. But before they could arrest her, the Ringmaster and Otto the Odd appeared holding a frightened young woman captive. The Ringmaster threw her on the ground and before she could scramble away, Otto pulled something from his pocket and fired it at her. 

That something was a smaller version of the "DNA Fusing Machine". When the beam struck the poor young woman it altered her DNA and fused it with several different creatures. She was transformed into a three hundred and thirty foot monster. She now possessed the head of a shark, the body of a lion, the paws and feet of a tiger, and the tail of a dolphin.

The three Loonatics gaped at the incredible looking creature in shock. Of all the things they had encountered as a super hero team, they had never seen anything like this before."So, tell me, Loonatics… what do you think of my futuristic version of the Chimera? Don't you think it's my greatest masterpiece so far?" Otto said evilly, a look of triumph on his face. 

"Honestly? I think you're nuts just like your henchman, there. In fact, people shouldn't be calling you Otto the Odd but Otto the Crazy, doc!" Ace said making fun of the crazy scientist.

"Heh heh heh... very funny, rabbit, but let's see if you and your friends continue to laugh when my Chimera starts to rip you apart... limb by limb. Attack!" He ordered his creature.

At the sound of Otto's voice, the monstrous beast lumbered toward Ace and the others. The ground beneath its huge paws shook like an earthquake with every step it took.

Terrified people began running for their lives as the three Loonatics prepared for the battle of their lives. They ducked out of the way of those massive feet before they could end up as pancakes. 

"Blalaghgrhaghag… What do we do now?" Slam asked worriedly."Beats me, Slam! I've fought against angry Gossamerians, reptile centurions, even killing androids, not to mention, facing almost every kind of trap to grab Tweetums, when I was a hitman, but I've never faced an opponent this big and, personally, I don't know how we can stop him… Sufferin' succotash! Watch where you put your feet!" Sylth said anxiously as he narrowly avoided being crushed.

"When we faced the Ringmaster's monstrous form he was four times smaller than this beastie and we had the whole team when we tackled him. We've got to return that poor girl back to normal and since I don't know if Tech thought to bring his DNA De-Scrambler along on this trip were going to have to do what we did the last time with the Ringmaster." Ace said grimly. "So listen up guys… Slam, you know what to do… Sylth, you get ready with some Retrofire Master Blasters. Once Slam has that thing captured in a tornado, you shoot at it continuously. Got it?" He asked. Both Slam and Sylth nodded and got ready to go on Ace's command.

They quickly got into position. "Go Slam!" Ace shouted.

Slam started to spin madly forming a tornado around the beast, trying to create a vortex in the centre so his team mates could execute their strategy. In a matter of seconds, the beast was surrounded by a huge purple tornado and Ace gave Sylth the signal to start shooting.

Ace divided himself into six then used their laser vision to strike the beast hoping to make it reverse its form. The plan seemed to be working until Slam was thrown out of his tornado causing it to dissipate in a massive sonic boom that knocked them all off their feet. 

Ace returned himself to normal as he got to his feet. Apparently, the plan wasn't going to work this time.

"Dang, the creature is just too big for that to work like it did against the Ringmaster." He said in dismay. "We really need Rev and Swift to add their abilities to Slams to be able to make this work. Let me try and reach Zadavia and have her send them to us." Ace said activating his comm. but there was no response. "Okay, that isn't good! What could have happened to Zadavia?" He said aloud.

A loud roar grabbed their attention. The Chimera had forgotten them and was now destroying everything in its path. They really needed their team mates.

"Well if we can't get Zadavia then I'll try and raise my team myself," Ace muttered.

Just as he began to engage his comm., Rev and Swift arrived on the scene racing toward them like twin lightning bolts. Not far behind, Lexi and her team arrived and on their heels the rest of the Loonatics appeared. Lexi drove up beside Ace and stared at the wild looking creature.

"Please, tell me that isn't what I think it is, Ace." She said gaping.

"If you're thinking that thing isn't a giant mutant beast who had been a normal person until Otto scrambled her DNA then I'm afraid that it really is what you're thinking it is, Lexi." Ace said sarcastically.

"God, sometimes I hate it when I'm right about something." Lexi groaned.

"What do we do to stop that monstro, Ace?" Swift asked.

"Since we don't have a DNA De-Scrambler, the only way I can think of, is to do what we did last time to revert the Ringmaster back to normal. We tried it once but this thing is bigger so it will take all of us to try and change it back. So… Slam get ready to make a tornado again but this time, Rev… you and Swift are going to spin around Slam as soon as he's got the tornado going. Go at your top speed. The rest of you with energy abilities prepare to shoot at that thing and those that don't… grab some Retrofire Master Blasters and fire with everything you got." Ace said, laying out his battle plan.

"Everybody got that?" He asked and received quick yeas and nods. "Then let's do this Loonatics. Slam... go to it!" Ace shouted his command.

Slam raced to the Chimera and began to make his tornado again. Rev and Swift waited till Slam had it going really fast then began to match him and raced around making the tornado spin even faster. Rev went into his 'Phoenix mode' and turned the tornado into a fiery column. The rest of the Loonatics took up firing stances around their whirling team mates. Ace split into six again with the rest of his team spread in a circle. "Fire!" Ace commanded as he shot off his laser beams. Lexi fired her Ballistic Brain Blasts, Duck sent his Morph Orbs at it, Tech used his Magnetic Power, Pinkster altered his arm into some kind of blue plasma and fired with it, and Patricia used her Sonic Scream. Sylth, Tweetums and Mimi used two Retrofire Master Blasters a piece and fired steadily at the beast. 

Inside the tornado, the Chimera slowly started to revert back to a normal girl again. As soon as the transformation was finished everyone ceased firing and Slam, Rev, and Swift slowly let the whirling tornado die down. 

Fortunately for the Loonatics, Otto and the Ringmaster were too stunned by this raw display of power to do anything but watch in disbelief."How dare those infernal animals stop my beautiful creature?" Otto shrieked in anger not noticing that Rev and Swift had moved faster than the eye could follow, to stand behind him and the Ringmaster. He blinked in shock when he turned to escape and was met by the mouse and roadrunner. "What...How did you get here so fast?!" He blurted in surprise.

"Aw! Now that would be telling! If we stayed here talking about it, I would have to explain it to you in slow motion, and since we don't have the time, or the disposition, don't ask us." Rev smirked as he and Swift used their Gluco-Gel devices to encase the criminals before they could get away. The police, who witnessed the battle, quickly took them off their hands. 

"Looks like this is the end of the show for you two!" Tech said as the police hauled them away.

"Well, now that they are in custody, what's next, Ace?" Patricia asked Ace who was trying to contact Zadavia again and again failing to make contact.

"Mmm… I don't like this. I've tried to reach Zadavia four times now and still nothing." Ace said in concern.

"I tried to reach her too, before we came here." Lexi said, now even more concerned than before.

"Maybe your communicators are broken." Sylth suggested cautiously.

"I don't think so… but let's do a test and see if anyone else is having trouble reaching her. Everyone try and contact Zadavia with your communicators." Ace ordered.

All of the members of the Loonatics tried to contact Zadavia, and one by one, received no response. They were beginning to feel this wasn't a coincidence. Zadavia was probably in danger.

"I don't like this one bit! Zadavia's in trouble...I know it!" Tweetums said what they were all thinking. "I'm afraid that that mean old evil ex-queen of my planet is behind all this…"

But before Tweetums could finish his sentence, an electric harpoon passed right in the middle of them, almost hitting Duck. Duck became hysterical, looking frantically around for the culprit.

From around the corner of a building across from them, Electro J. Fudd stepped out, scowling at them as he reloaded the weapon that had shot at them. Behind him was Ophiucus Sam mounted on his mechanical mule. He shot a couple of bullets into the air and yelled like a banshee. "Yihaaaaaaaaaa! Now that was a nice shot, partner!" He cheered.

"What awe you talking about? I missed… I wanted to shoot that lousy duck." Fudd snarled at his companion. "But I never miss twice and this time, I'm going to shoot that wascally wabbit!"

Once he got his ammunition in his weapon, he fired another harpoon aiming for Ace. Fortunately, the Loonatics had spread out after the first attack making it difficult for Fudd or Sam to get them as easily as they nearly did by surprise.

Duck was the first to react as he shot a few morph orbs at the pair but missed them both.

Now that the battle had been actively engaged, Sam ordered his mechanical mule to run for it and Fudd activated his rocket boots to get out of the reach of the approaching Loonatics. Ace knew they had to capture the pair before they could regroup and get a better chance at trying to take the super team again.They all hopped on their Zoomatrixes and raced after the fleeing pair. As they got closer to Sam he began to fire on them forcing them to duck and jet out of the way, slowing them down. Ace signalled Lexi, Rev, and Mimi to take a different route on the right of them then he signalled Tweetums, Sylth, and Duck to do the same on the left. They planned to catch the pair in a pincher movement. Sam and Fudd failed to realize the group behind them had dwindled from twelve to six and that the others were paralleling them on other streets.

When they entered in a tunnel, Ace and his team increased their speed to nearly catch up to the criminals. Sam continued to fire at them haphazardly trying to take out some of the Loonatics. It was Fudd, however, that had finally realized they were in trouble and quickly devised another plan as he and Sam continued to run. 

He pulled out a different weapon that fired what looked like some kind of plasma net. Ace had been watching for an attack from Electro so was ready with his Guardian Strike Sword. He cut the net to pieces as it nearly settled on them. 

Angry at his failure, Fudd sped up and Sam did the same so that they were racing at a very high speed when they shot out of the tunnel. Coming at them from two different directions were the rest of the Loonatics. At the rate of speed Fudd and Sam were doing, they nearly crashed into the super heroes who nearly smashed into each other when the criminals shot past them, but they managed to brake in time before an ugly mess could have occurred. "Hey, why don't you be more careful? You almost crashed into us!" Mimi shouted, a bit shaken by the near miss.

"You were the ones who were speeding as if you had a monster after you!" Sylth growled angrily.

"Guys, guys… If you want to argue then you better do it later, because we still have to grab those two!" Ace snapped at them. "Now come on, they're getting away!"

Ace tore off speeding after the crooks with the rest of the Loonatics spread out behind him. The two villains thought they had lost them, but quickly heard the roar of the Zoomatrix. Cursing they tried to out run them.

"Those damn Looneytics are starting to get on my nerves! Faster, you bloody mule!" Sam snarled at his mount which tried to go a little faster.

"We have to stick to the pwan, wemember? Follow me! That wascally wabbit and his fwiends are going to be in for a sueprise." Electro snickered grimly as he closed his helmet.

Fudd turned left with Sam following him as fast as he could. Soon, they found themselves racing toward an abandoned factory. The place was falling apart and it seemed it wouldn't take more than one small punch to bring the whole thing down like a house of cards.

As he got close, Sam blasted one of the doors open and raced inside with Fudd, the Loonatics close on their tails. Inside it was dim and gloomy with barely any light coming in the filthy windows. It was a maze of crates and other heavy equipment. The Loonatics turned on the Zoomatrixes lights. Swift led the way using his night vision abilities to guide them through the maze that the pair of criminals had somehow disappeared into."Stay close to me, mi amigos… they went that way!" Swift said as he signalled them to go to the right.

After being in the maze for about ten minutes they finally caught up to Sam and Electro, who seemed to have trapped themselves. The Loonatics stopped their vehicles about 25 metres from where the two criminals huddled, scowling at them. 

Ace climbed off his bike followed by his team mates. They approached the pair warily. Stopping some fifteen meters from the pair, Ace gave them an ultimatum.

"Looks like the end of the race for you too! Now here's your options and I'm only going to say this once... choose the easy way and tell us where we can find Queen Granicus and the rest of her crew or... take the hard way and we'll force you to tell us what we want to know!" He told them bluntly. "So, which is it going to be?

"Hah! No way are you going to arrest me, you pests. I'm gonna blast you into the other side of the Universe, or my name's not Ophi… iccy… whatever! The point is that you're all dead meat, rabbit!" Sam snarled coldly pointing his weapons at them.

"You're out your mind, if you think the universe's greatest hunter is suwendering himself to you wascally wabbit! As far as I'm concerned...it's now wabbit season!" Fudd said cooly, firing his weapon at Ace causing him to leap out of the way.  
"Why do these guys never choose the easy way? It's like if they have a part of their brain that refuses to accept that they are a bunch of losers and that the good guys always win in the end. Duck snorted, sarcastically.

"Never mind that, Duck, we got bigger problems!" Lexi shouted as Sam joined Fudd in firing at the Loonatics. 

"Don't worry, I'll stop them… Just stay here," Sylth said as he engaged his invisibility powers and ducked and dodged his way to the pair firing at them. Any shot that did reach him bounced off his nearly invulnerable hide. Just as he was about to lay his paws on them, he was hit by a strange purple lightning bolt.

The rest of the Loonatics paused in their hiding places in shock.

'Now where the heck did that come from?' Ace thought, searching everywhere for the weapon that had fired on them. 

Before Ace had a chance to come up with a plan, the purple lightning bolt struck down all his team mates in quick succession. Nearly everyone was struck down in a matter of seconds except for Duck and Ace who were hidden too well.

"Where the heck is that purple lightning coming from?" Duck whispered, asking the same question Ace was thinking.

"Don't know, Duck but I think we better keep moving and see if we can find out. Right now we're the only two left." Ace hissed tightly, getting ready to move to a new location but before he could move he noticed something. "Hey! Where'd Fudd and Sam go to?" He asked uneasily."Maybe they thought those lightning thingies would hurt them... oh!" Duck yelped then lost consciousness when he was struck from behind.

"Duck!" Ace exclaimed as he made a move to check his companion then gasped as he too was struck causing him to fall onto Duck.

Once all of the Loonatics were down and out, Sam and Electro reappeared from behind a tower of crates. Behind them came General Vector, General Melvin and his faithful canine companion, Sgt Sirius. The mechanical dog barked at the Loonatics lying on the floor. From around another set of crates came what was left of the B-Dog Annihilators. They came close and stopped, awaiting orders.

"That was way too easy!" General Vector smirked, pleased the plan had succeeded.

"Indeed it was. I have to admit for such hotshot opponents they were still ridiculously easy to defeat. We were just too superior for them." Melvin admitted, as he looked down on Duck and Rev.

"Yes, you're absolutely right, Melvin. We were always superior to all of them." A figure said triumphantly as it walked out of the shadows near them. Queen Granicus had a smile of pure evil satisfaction on her face and held the Dark Scepter in her hands. It was this that had taken down the Loonatics with ease. "Vector, order your androids to pick up the Loonatics and bring them along. I've got a little surprise for them before we finish this party. Believe me, when I say, this surprise will be a blast, not only for those miserable Loonatics, but for all the people on this insignificant planet!" She gloated as she led the way out of the warehouse.


	15. Countdown to Disaster

Chapter 15: Countdown to Disaster

Ace slowly opened his eyes. His head felt like as if it was several times bigger than usual and he felt dizzy, everything kept spinning around. He kept his eyes closed for several minutes while he got his bearings then dared to open them. The spinning seemed to have eased so he was able to finally study his surroundings.

That's when he discovered that he and the rest of his team were trapped inside some kind of orange energy bubble. Another bubble floated nearby with Zadavia laying in it. He grimed see that she had been taken too. Looking around the room they were confined in, he saw it was huge room with a vertical tube off to one side filled with a strange blue liquid substance. It went from floor to ceiling and gave the room an eerie light. On the other side of the room was a bank of controls of some kind with Queen Granicus and the rest of her minions standing nearby.

"I see that you are all waking up now, Loonatics." The Queen said with a smirk as she looked them over. "Don't bother to waste your energies trying to get out of those Martian Energy Prison Bubbles because the only way to open them is from the outside."

"So, you got us, Queenie? Tell me, what are you going to do with us?" Ace asked nonchalantly, as if he didn't really care one way or the other and was unafraid of what she might have planned.

"First of all, I'm going to savour this moment a bit longer. I always thought you were weak, but never dreamed you could let yourselves be so weak as to let me catch you in such a simple ambush." She gloated with glee. "To be honest, your benefactor, there, gave us more of a fight than you did." She said with a fake pout as she pointed at Zadavia who was sitting up now and looking at her.

"You attacked her and then, you attacked us?" Mimi said in angry disgust.

"Of course! She was the strongest and needed to be taken out. She gave us quite a battle but in the end, I won! As for you, I let my associates wear you down then led you the trap where my sceptre was able to take you down quickly." She said triumphantly. "You were so easy to take out. What a motley group you are; two stubborn bunny rabbits, a duck that's full of himself, a coyote who's too smart for his own good, a fat pig who was once a brilliant criminal, a fast talking road runner, two perfumed skunks with French accent, a traitor and backstabbing cat, a Tasmanian Devil that no one understands a word he says, a Spanish rat and a puny little bird who's a thief! You really are the worst group I've ever seen in my entire life." She said with scathing denouncement.

"Excuse me, but you got one thing wrong, lady! I'm not a skunk! My sister is a skunk… I'm a cat!" Patricia said with great dignity.

"I don't care, my dear… In fact no one will care what you or your comrades are, because they will not be able to identify you. Better still, no one in this universe will be able to identify any person on this planet when I'm through." The Queen smirked, very pleased with herself.

"Just what do you have planned in that evil mind of your, Queenie?" Ace asked tightly, knowing it was going to really bad and hoping to get her to spill the beans as most megalomaniacs do but she surprised him

"Patience, rabbit, mustn't spoil the surprise. You will all understand soon enough!" She said with a gleam of sadistic pleasure in her eyes.

"You're not going to do anything, old lady, because I, Danger Duck, am going to stop you!" Duck said pompously as he tried to quack himself out of the sphere only to find nothing happened. "What the…" He muttered angrily.

"Did you not hear Queen Granicus, bird? My Martian Energy Prison Bubbles neutralize the effects of your powers and just in case your primitive brain doesn't understand what I'm saying… which seems obvious… it simply means that when you touch them it negates your power and when you don't they work fine." General Melvin expounded. In his hand he held some kind of remote which Ace suspected controlled the bubbles.

Sergeant Sirius began barking at Duck who just made faces at the annoying mechanical mutt.

"You Looneytics are not going anywhere. When this thing goes kablooey, you get a one way ticket to the other side of the Universe, or my name isn't Ophi… Iccy… whatever… Oops, I think I already said too much!" Sam blushed in shocked dismay. The Queen gave him a glare that could have melted an iceberg.

"What do you mean when this thing goes kabloey?" Lexi jumped on the statement hoping for more information.

"I guess we can tell them what's going to happen, since they're going to find out sooner or later…" Sam suggested, hoping the Queen wouldn't bash him one.

"Not that I'm happy about you shooting your mouth off and ruining my surprise…" Her voice dripped barely controlled fury "… I might as well tell them. Tell me, Loonatics, do you know where we are?" She asked them.

"The infrastructure is familiar to me and I know I have seen it before, but I just can't place it yet. I do know it somewhere important." Tech said slowly as he tried to dig into his memory to identify the place.

"Let me help you coyote… we are inside the main control room of Acmetropolis Plasma Fusion Plant 1, one of twenty-four plasma fusion plants that still exist on Acmetropolis. All of these power plants are connected to each other, which is just perfect for what I have prepared for all of you!" She said with dark humour.

"Very impressive, but what does that have to do with the fact that you told us that we were going to be destruídos, after a very grande kablooey, because I still don't get it?" Swift asked, still puzzled.

"Don't interrupt me rodent!" She snapped. "Now where was I… ah yes… as I was saying this plasma fusion plant is connected to the other twenty-three, and, as you can imagine, when one explodes… think of dominoes… I think even you have enough brain power to figure out the ultimate consequence of such an action." Her eyes glowed with unholy glee.

"The others will explode one after the other… simple physics really and totally devastating to the planet…" Tech said in a hushed, horrified voice.

"But if you do that, you'll send this entire planet back to the Stone Age!" Zadavia exclaimed angrily.

"That's the idea, my dear. When the universe sees what has happened to those who defy me, they will tremble whenever they hear my name." Queen Granicus said with an evil smile. "You were the only ones standing in my way to power. From the first moment I saw you, I knew that you were nothing but trouble. I assigned that stupid feline there to stop you, and that wretched bird from getting to Blanc, but you were tougher than I expected." She snarled, pointing at the pair in question with her sceptre. "That's why I knew that if I wanted my place as the rightful Queen of Blanc, and ruler of the universe, I needed to get rid of you, once and for all!"

"You're going to destroy this entire planet just so you can get rid of us permanently?" Ace asked in shock the shook his head. "Man! You are really one crazy lady!" He said in disgust.

She darkened at that comment but said, "Of course, how better to make the lesson clear to the universe. In fact, I would be willing to sacrifice a dozen of planets, if that ensured me that you would disappear from the face of the universe, rabbit!" She said wickedly.

"Sufferin' succotash, all these years I thought that you were just greedy, but now I see you're really just a sociopath!" Sylth said, appalled, as he punched the Prison Bubble, trying to see if they were as resistant as they said it was.

Don't forget that she wants to kill everyone on the planet, puddy tat not just us and that makes her a very mean psychopath." Tweetums added bitterly.

"Right you are… She's also a very despicable person, canary face." Sylth agreed with Tweetums.

"BE QUIET, BOTH OF YOU!" The Queen roared furiously. "You two are to blame here. If you, you stupid feline, had destroyed this him when I ordered you too, I would have still been ruler of Blanc." She snapped at the cat then turned to Tweetums and said nastily, "And you, if you had decided to stay in exile, like your ancestors, I wouldn't have had to rely on that cat to get rid of you. In fact, you two are responsible for at least half of what's going to happen here."

"No, you're entirely responsible of what's going on here Queenie, so don't blame his Feathered Highness and Sylth, because it's not their fault that you let the desire for power go to your head and drive you insane," Ace mocked her.

"Maybe you're right, rabbit… Maybe power has gone to my head, but it doesn't matter anymore, because in a matter of minutes this planet will be history. General Melvin, what is your status?" She asked turning away from her prisoners.

"My troops are starting to retreat, so when this thing explodes, they will not be hit by the shock wave… If my calculations are correct, once this explodes, the shock wave and the blazing inferno created by the plasma will kill instantly half of the population of Acmetropolis, while the other half will be killed by a nuclear winter that will follow." The Martian explained, using a portable computer the size of a small box of chocolates, to show her the effects of the explosion in a three dimensional image.

She nodded her head in satisfaction. "Excellent! Once we've set the bomb on the first of the fusion plants, everyone on this planet will have exactly twenty minutes of live left."

"But how are you going to escape if all the ships are retreating?" Zadavia asked.

"I'm not stupid dear. There are two left… mine and General Melvin's. We will use them to leave the planet. When the bomb goes off we will be far enough away to watch the beautiful fireworks display." She explained then barked a command, "General Vector… bring it!"

General Vector came out of the dark, along with Electro J. Fudd. Accompanying them was a B-Dog Annihilator, who was carrying what looked like a small electronic device. It was purple, and had a lot of small buttons and a digital screen. Melvin approached the android and took the device from its hands, and started to press the buttons.

The digital screen turned on and he quickly punched in the numbers then he went to the main control panel, which controlled the reactor, and put the bomb on top of it. When he pressed a black button on it, some kind of small mechanical tentacles came out of its interior and connected itself to the control panel, linking itself with it.

"The bomb is now ready, Queen Granicus." General Melvin told her. "Would you be so kind as to press the activation button?" He asked as he bowed himself in front of her in a sign of respect.

"It would be my pleasure." She said eagerly. She approached the control panel with the bomb, stood in front of it, then, after giving an evil laugh, she said, "Your time is over, Loonatics… your reign of goodness ends now and my reign of evilness is just beginning… hahahahahaha!!!

But, when she was about to press the button something smashed against one of the walls causing a massive explosion. The Prison Bubbles holding the Loonatics and Zadavia, rolled to the other side of the room. The villains fell on their backs from the shockwave. Through the dissipating smoke and debris they saw it was another space ship. It had landed just outside and out the cargo door strode Optimatus, Zadavia's brother. He had finally made it to help them.

"Did someone call for help?" He asked innocently, glancing toward his sister who gave him a wane smile.

"Oh no! It's Optimatus, that troublesome Zadavia's bwother!" Electro shouted excitedly.

"You all picked the wrong people to mess with. Nobody hurts my sister, or her protégées, and gets away with it!" Optimatus growled.

"Sorry to say this, but it's you who should not mess with us, especially when you're about to get trapped." Melvin growled back and pointing his remote at the intruder.

The remote control shot a small sphere of orange energy that expanded itself, as it got near Optimatus, but he was able to dodge it and then used its powers to fire a powerful beam of energy into it, destroying it. Once it was out, the Martian Energy Prison Bubbles turned off, releasing the Loonatics and Zadavia.

Relieved and ready to fight, Ace gave his orders, "OK, Loonatics, time for us to finish this! Everyone split up and pick an opponent. Remember, try not to get hit. Let's jet!"

While the Loonatics tried to put the villains out of commission, Optimatus decided to help Zadavia, who was still a bit dizzy and was having a few problems getting up on her feet.

"I'm sorry I took so long to get here but when I got your call I was a fair distance from Acmetropolis. I raced as fast as I could. Looks like I made it in time." Optimatus said.

"Yes, better late than never, brother… But how did you find us?" She asked leaning against him.

"I picked up the distress signal you set in your ship and followed it as far as the plant. As for finding your exact location, those idiots there didn't bother to hide your ship and parked it right on top of this building. But tell me, how did you let yourself get captured by that nasty woman and her allies anyway?" He asked.

"A couple of Martian spaceships slipped by my alarms and attacked my ship. They managed to breach my shields. I tried to stop them but the Queen appeared and used her sceptre to knock me out. But never mind that now, we have to stop them." Zadavia said quickly. Optimatus nodded and they looked to see where they were needed

What they saw was the battle turning to the Loonatics favour. They looked to be winning.

Slam easily knocked General Vector off his feet and into a wall with his tornado attack. General Melvin and Sergeant Sirius were trying to evade the attacks from Pinkster and Lexi. The others did their best to keep the other villains occupied, while Ace fought against Queen Granicus, who was using her sceptre to try and take out the Loonatics Leader. Ace used all of his tricks to stop her but the watching brother and sister realized he might not have enough power to stop her. They joined him and ganged up on the Queen.

She still managed to hold them off and none of them noticed she was forcing them to move closer to the bomb. When she finally got them close enough to the control panel, she used her sceptre to send a powerful lightning storm of energy at her three attackers. It didn't knock them out but did make sure they were in no condition to stop her. Turning to the bomb, she pushed the button making the digital visor light up and starting the countdown.

"Too late, Loonatics! Now it's time for me to get out of here and for you to die." She crowed triumphantly then bellowed, "My loyal troops retreat now! Time to leave this place… to our ships, immediately." She quickly stepped around her helpless foes on the floor and made for the door. Her troops quickly tried to rid themselves of the other members of the Loonatics.

After some difficulty, her minions managed to win themselves free and head out the door. Duck still tried to stop them but Electro shot an electric net over him, giving Duck a wicked electric shock.

Struggling out from under the net and still rather wobbly from the shock, Duck still tried to go after the escaping villains. "This ain't over yet…" He declared. "I'll teach you guys a lesson… let me just get my hands on you and…" He muttered darkly trying to get his body to answer his commands.

"Duck, leave them for now! We've got bigger problems right now!" Ace ordered, making Duck pause and turn his head. He saw everyone was gathered around the bomb.

Tech, Rev and Pinkster were all trying to determine how to disarm it but were afraid to touch it because it was from technology they were unfamiliar with.

"It's Martian technology… I just hate it. When you think you know everything there is to know about technology, these guys just come up with something new all the time. There's no keeping up with them." Tech grumbled tensely.

"T-T-This is a v-v-very d-d-delicate device… I t-t-think I… I t-t-think I… I t-t-think I… I have never seen, a-a-anything like it, b-b-before." Pinkster agreed shaking his head in dismay.

"From what you do know of Martian technology, Tech, can you at least figure out what this thing is supposed to do?" Lexi asked.

"Well you have to be more specific than that, Lexi, because although we don't know what it isn't, we can have a small theory on what it is. Of course, a theory is not the same thing as fact, because a theory is just an assumption of something that we don't exactly know…" Rev rattled on rapidly leaving everyone behind in comprehension of what he was saying.

"Slow down, there, Rev… I think we got that. But, what we really wanna know is what kind of bomb is that, because we already know that it is a bomb." Sylth said firmly. He leaned forward and read the time on the digital timer. They had very little time to act.

"Sylth's right… What kind of bomb is that, guys?" Ace asked urgently.

"From what I can tell Ace, this isn't exactly a bomb. It simply turns the reactor into a bomb." Tech said grimly.

"Blahahrhaglhlaal… A bomb?" Slam asked, wanting to be sure he understood.

"Yes, Slam… What this device does is push the reactor into an unbalanced state triggering it to overload and explode. We have to find a way to disable this trigger to stop the reaction." Tech explained.

"Can't you just disable it or just rip it off the control panel?" Patricia asked.

"Unfortunately, no… it's fused itself to the control panel. Any attempt to mess with it will cause it to self destruct and give the orders to the reactor anyway to meltdown. Even using my powers could trigger it." Tech said helplessly.

"You mean we can't stop that device, mi amigo?" Swift asked tightly, not happy to be boxed in without a way out.

"Bingo, Swift… If we try to disable it, its game over, my friend, not only for us, but for everyone in Acmetropolis. The only other way I can come up with to stop this from happening is to shut down the reactor." Tech said thoughtfully.

"And how long would that take?" Optimatus asked tensely.

"I would say about three hours. Being the biggest reactor on the planet, it accumulates a lot of energy and to transfer it to the other power plants takes a lot of time." Tech said unhappily.

"But we don't have three hours, Tech. We've got less than eighteen minutes." Tweetums said flatly as he looked into the visor.

"And, unless we can come up with a solution in the next eighteen minutes, everyone in Acmetropolis will need a bottle of sun screen with a 100 million factor, including us, because things will get pretty hot…" Ace said grimly and admitted to himself that they were fast running out of time. He didn't like feeling this helpless.

As the seconds passed, all of them wished they had the power to stop time, or even reverse it, to prevent the reactor from exploding. Someone had to come up with something quick or they were all doomed.

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Well, the countdown has begun, ad this time, nothing, not even all the luck in the Universe will be enough to help the Loonatics? What will happen? Will Ace and his team be able to disable the bomb before it's too late? Will Queen Granicus and her associates get away? Find out the answers for these, and other questions in the next chapter: "Hope Never Dies".


	16. Hope Never Dies

Chapter 16: Hope Never Dies

Chapter 16: Hope Never Dies

Time… a funny thing that seems to control everyone's lives, wherever that place may be, and right this moment, it seemed that the Loonatics Extreme did not have enough of it.

Queen Granicus, the evil ex-queen of planet Blanc, along with her minions, converted the reactor of the main Plasma Fusion Plant in Acmetropolis into a bomb set to blow up and destroy the entire planet.

Tech, along with Pinkster and Rev, were examining the bomb trying to figure out a way to reverse the reactor's condition, keeping in mind that their attempts to stop it could cause it to explode sooner.

"We're in a bleak situation here, folks! This thing is really advanced and is stumping even me with my brilliant mind!" Tech was forced to admit.

"Does that mean you can't disable it?" Lexi asked anxiously.

"I didn't say that, Lexi. It's just that I'd feel a bit more confident if I had my own tools. I don't have much here to do the job." Tech said worriedly.

"It's possible I may be able to help you, Tech" Optimatus said then used his powers to make a tool box appear just in front of them. "I hope these may be useful to you."

Tech knelt down and opened the box. He quickly scanned the contents and grunted in relief. Grabbing the ones he needed he jumped up and went to the panel where the device was attached.

One of the tools looked like an electric screwdriver. He used this to poke at a USB exit port. Immediately, a hologram appeared with the schematics of the electrical system of the device. Tech used the tool to locate the main components of the device, hoping to see if some of them were technologically similar to the ones he used. Barring that he hoped to find anything identifiable that would stop the infernal device. After long moments of tense poking around, he finally found something that, if his assumptions were correct, would be their ticket out of this desperate situation.

"I've got it! The main power source is made of Ruby-Quartzanium Crystal. These things are usually powered by a similar crystal which is made exclusively on a small planet on the other side of the galaxy. If I had one, I think I can reverse the polarity of this unit and stop the countdown." Tech told everyone.

"How the heck is that good news when the crystal you need is on the other side of galaxy!" Duck exclaimed in exasperation.

"Even if we took the ship, went through the wormhole, searched for a crystal, and raced back, by my calculations, we couldn't possibly make it in time. Also, if we spent the time looking for a machine that was powered by one here in Acmetropolis, and there's no guarantee we'd be successful, we still don't have time to do that kind of search. Our odds of just finding such a crystal or similar power source in the time we have left are very, very low, if not null." Rev said anxiously.

"I hate to say it but Rev's right, Tech. We don't have time to get a crystal from across the galaxy or look for one here because the chances of finding one is small. Heck! We're losing time just talking about it as it is." Sylth said, looking at the timer pointedly.

"I know we don't have much time but I do know where we can get a crystal… if we hurry!" Tech said.

"Blalrlgahgllahhaghr…Where?" Slam demanded, anxious to be doing something.

"Where else? In Queen Granicus's sceptre! When she was blabbing about her grand plan, I noticed the uncut jewel mounted on top of it. That is a Ruby-Quartzanium Crystal… exactly what we need. With it I can stop the device from setting off the reactors." Tech said positively.

This information gave the team hope they might actually have a chance. Being able to take action rather than sit around helplessly was the impetus they needed to move forward and save the world.

"See guys, hope never dies! At least there's hope we'll be able to get out of this sticky situation if we hustle!" Ace said to all of them. "All we need to do now is to stop those villains from getting off the planet, grab the crystal and bring it to Tech. So here's the plan: Tech... you, Rev and Patricia stay here with Zadavia and Optimatus, just in case anything goes wrong, while the rest of you come with me." Ace ordered quickly.

"So, how do we find the Queen when we don't know where they went, o' fearless leader?" Duck asked sarcastically. "In case you haven't already noticed it, they scattered pretty fast to parts unknown!"

Even though the end of the world was minutes away, Danger Duck was only interested in making Ace look bad.

"On the contrary, Duck, I know exactly where they went… In case you don't remember, the first thing they all did when they arrived in Acmetropolis was to break out all the criminals in the Maximum Security Prison. Since that was their first destination, I'm certain we'll find their spaceships still parked there. They've already got a lead on us so we better jet out of here before they have time to take off. They want to be far away from the planet as they can get before it blows so they will be in a hurry. Let's go!" Ace said quickly as he ran for the exit.

As everyone jumped on their Zoomatrixes, Ace turned to Swift. "You go on ahead and try to prevent those guys from reaching their ship. We'll be there as fast as we can." He ordered.

"Right! See you there, amigos!" Swift said as he quickly took off.

The rest of the team took their Zoomatrixes to the highest speeds they could go, climbing into the air chasing after their swifter team mate.

While the Loonatics were racing to the Acmetropolis Maximum Security Prison as fast as they could, Queen Granicus and her loyal minions were just arriving exactly where Ace hoped they'd be.

The Queen had used her sceptre to create a powerful energy bubble that transported herself and her crew to their ship. Everyone was in high spirits as they contemplated the death of their sworn enemies and the destruction of Acmetropolis. They knew there was no way the Loonatics would leave the planet even with Optimatus' ship until they had done everything they could to save their beloved planet.

The group of criminals led by the Queen made fast tracks to their ship. They needed to take off quickly.

"At last, my vengeance is nearly complete. In a few minutes it will all be over, and then, I will be able to proclaim myself, not only rightful Queen of Blanc, but also of the Universe!" Granicus shouted in triumph as she reached her ship.

"Yeah and those Looneytics will be completely destroyed!" Ophiucus Sam cheered.

"It is weally a terwible shame to let such gweat advewsaries like the Loonatics pewish like that… Oh well, that's life!" Fudd said cheerfully as he turned to give a last look toward the doomed city then the abandoned prison building, as the sun began to sink below the horizon and the darkness of the night started to swallow it.

"It's time to go… I wouldn't like to be here when that reactor explodes." General Vector said gruffly as he pulled the remote control for his ship out of his pocket and started to press a button to open the access door. To his shock the remote vanished from his hand.

"Are you looking for this, amigo!" Swift said holding the remote.

"The Loonatics!!" Vector shouted in angry surprise.

The Queen had nearly reached the door to Vector's ship when an orange morph ball almost hit her. "What was that?" She yelled in surprise turning around. She found her problems were not over yet.

Swift had succeeded in delaying the criminals enough for the rest of his team to arrive. It had been Duck who had nearly hit the Queen. Arrowing in from the sky, the Loonatics open fired on the villains driving them away from the ship and making escape impossible.

The Loonatics' Zoomatrixes landed on the ground and screeched to a halt. They leaped off and, with Ace in command; they surrounded Granicus and the others.

"Leaving so soon, Queen Granicus?" Lexi asked smugly.

"You really are persistent, you know that? Do you actually think that you can stop me from leaving this pathetic planet, which will soon be swept from the face of the Universe?" She huffed in anger, giving them a malevolent look, a look so evil a normal person would be frozen with fear, but it had no effect on the Loonatics.

"You're not going anywhere, Queenie! You and your buddies aren't leaving this planet without a fight!" Ace threatened as he pointed his Guardian Strike Sword at the Queen.

"Why don't you make us, rabbit?! I'm not afraid of you or your pathetic group of freaks! I'll deal with you myself, this time!" Queen Granicus screamed as she pointed the Dark Sceptre of Blanc at Ace. The jewel began to glow intensely.

"You can try Queenie!" Ace jeered getting her angry enough to make a mistake. "Loonatics... spread out… remember what we came here to do!" Ace shouted at his team mates.

They needed to get the sceptre from her quickly. There was no time to lose, but first they had to keep her from killing them with it. Without any further warnings, Ace and the Loonatics jumped right into action, while the villains did the same.

Ophiucus Sam was the first to try and grab one of the Loonatics, by lassoing Danger Duck, with a special rope made out of titanium alloy. Duck proved how stupid that was by promptly teleporting himself away. Sam was left to mumble to himself in annoyance.

"That varmint!" He hissed aloud. "Get back here and fight like a duck, you duck! I can shoot you and your friends all at the same time, with my eyes closed, or my name's not Ophi… iccy… whatever! Just get back here, so I can shoot you in the head!" The space cowboy shouted, as he changed weapons.

Mimi had taken on Melvin the Martian. His sidekick Sergeant Sirius was presently trying to bite her ankles. With one swift move, she snaked one of her legs out and wrapped it around the android dog's mouth, forcing him to close it. Melvin, meanwhile, was trying to blow her up with a stick of Uranium Q36 Explosive.

"This Uranium Q36 Explosive stick should give you a taste of my Martian artillery, you rubber skunk!" Melvin said angrily as he threw the explosive, only to have it returned to him by Mimi who had snatched it from the air and tossed it back. It exploded as soon as it touched the ground, blowing Melvin several meters into the air.

His head was ringing loudly and the air was knocked out of his lungs. He tried to sit up and was horrifying when he saw Sergeant Sirius headed for him. The dog had been thrown into the air and, before Melvin could roll out of the way, came crashing down on the unfortunate Martian, knocking him out and disabling the robot dog.

With one less villain to worry about, the skunk decided to help Swift and Lexi, who were trying to evade Electro J. Fudd's shotgun blasts. The self-proclaimed best hunter in the Universe was having a little problem dealing with the wily pair. One was incredibly agile while the other was incredibly fast. Without complaining about it, he fired everything he had against them.

"You wascally wabbit, you and your mousy fwiend stop moving awound so I can get a clean shot!" Fudd snarled.

"Sorry, Electro, but my mother always told me not to listen to strangers or evil persons." Lexi said archly as she somersaulted, avoiding an explosive bullet that missed her and blew once it hit the ground.

Fudd hissed in annoyance as he shot a few more explosive bullets, this time, trying to hit Swift, but the Mexicoolian mouse was way too fast and successfully evaded them all, having enough time to say a joke, before Fudd could fire a few more at him.

"You really are the worst cazador I have ever met! Mi padre is the worst cazador in Mexicool, but when I compare you to him, he's actually pretty good." Swift laughed making Fudd see red.

"You pesky wat! You're gonna wish you never said that! You may be fast, but not even you awe fast enough to stop my beautiful twacking bullets!" Fudd snapped as he changed the bullets in his gun and fired again at Swift.

As he said they would, the bullets followed Swift wherever he went. He tried everything to get rid of them but they hung to his path, copying his every move.

Pinkster noticed Swift's difficulty. He made a sign to his friend and told him to run towards him. As Swift obeyed and ran toward the pig, Pinkster turned his body into a gel thick enough to catch and stop the bullets. Unfortunately, these bullets managed to pass right through him and continue on to chase Swift.

Swift did the only thing he could under the circumstances. He veered back toward Fudd. Using all his speed, he raced toward the space hunter then slowed down just for a split second. When the bullets were close enough, he speeded up once again and ducked under Fudd, leaving the bullets to strike the new target in their path… Fudd. They struck him hard, knocking him off his feet and damaging his armor in the explosion. Fudd was shaken badly and as he struggled to his feet, Lexi suddenly appeared and put her left foot on his helmet to keep him from rising then fired up her Gluco-Gel 9000 weapon, encasing him in an instant bubble prison.

"End of the line for you, Fudd!" She said with a smirk. Turning away she looked around to see where she might be needed next.

Vector the Bulldog saw that the Loonatics were overpowering his companions very handily. He scowled in anger, but decided to escape so he could be free to plan again. He could rescue the others some other time, but not if he was captured too. As he tried to make his escape he was blocked by Sylth Vester. The bulky feline prevented the white bulldog from trying to enter his ship.

"Get out of the way, cat! If you know what's good for you, you'll let me pass!" Vector snarled, but then paused, reconsidering. "I know… I'll make a deal with you! If you let me get into my ship, I'll take you with me… What do you say?" Vector wheedled. "It beats being stuck on a planet that's about to be wiped out?"

"You know, until a few weeks ago, I would have jumped at such a deal without second thoughts. But, I don't do things like that anymore. I refuse your offer! Now put your hands where I can see them and you won't get hurt!" Sylth warned the dog, his posture calm and relaxed.

Vector scowled incredulously at the cat. No way was he going to be arrested and certainly not by an ex-hitman, so he pulled a gun from his jacket and pointed it at Sylth's chest.

Not knowing about Sylth's powers, he didn't hesitate to fire his plasma gun. It hit Sylth dead on, since the cat never made an attempt to get out of the way. The blast bounced off the cat's impenetrable form and bounced back at Vector just missing him and hitting the ship. The damage was slight.

Seeing he couldn't defeat the cat that way, he surprised Sylth by jumping him. Vector knocked Sylth to the ground and started to punch the cat in the face. It barely phased Granicus ex-hitman, as he returned a strike to the General's face. Vector quickly realized his only weapon against the cat was his speed, so he used it to punch Sylth rapidly in the face.

"I just don't understand… why have you betrayed Queen Granicus and started hanging out with the Loonatics?" The canine panted as he dodged a punch.

"I was fed up with being a bad guy. I decided to do something good for a change. If you had been in the battle on Wormhole Central, you would understand what I'm talking about." Sylth answered, while kicking Vector off him and getting back on his feet. "But the main reason was being tired of being treated like garbage by Granicus. She's insufferable and treats everyone like yesterday's garbage! Bet she treats you the same way. Why put up with that?" Sylth asked snorting at the dog's stupidity.

"My reasons are none of your concern. I don't care how she treats me as long as I get paid, so that I can get the things I really want. If you're a traitor to her then you're a traitor to me!" He snapped, displaying his fangs as he prepared to attack the cat again.

"In that case, say goodnight, beef-face!" Sylth joked, as he turned himself invisible, and then punching Vector in the face, putting him out of commission.

Meanwhile Ophiucus Sam had managed to keep the Loonatics from taking him down (which was pretty good for someone with the I.Q. of a bullet) while on his mechanical mule, but his bullets were failing to take out his persistent targets. His poor mule was having a hard time keeping up with Sam's commands and finally lost the battle when Slam, Pinkster, and Duck knocked his master from his back.

Furious, Sam used both hands to fire his guns at the three Loonatics. "Dang varmints! You think you can stop Ophi… iccy… whatever, then you're completely wrong, because I…" Sam began to bluster until Duck used one of his morph balls, turned it into super glue and sealed the villain's mouth shut with it.

"Finally, I-I-I t-t-thought he would n-n-never… he would n-n-never… he would n-n-never… he wouldn't shut up!" Pinkster said in relief then used his Gluco-Gel 9000 and sealed Sam in a bubble.

Elsewhere, Ace was having a hard time defeating Queen Granicus. Tweetums was with him and was, at the present moment, battling the Queen's sceptre with his own sceptre. The Sceptre of Blanc was quite powerful, and Tweetums demonstrated that he was not a beginner by using the sceptre and all his abilities. Unfortunately for him, Queen Granicus knew the power of his sceptre too well and if it were not for his great determination, she would have defeated him with a few tricks from her own sceptre.

Ace attempted to aid his team mate, but the Queen was quick to aim her sceptre at him making him back off.

"You wretched bird… You're tougher than I had anticipated! Unfortunately for you, I will obliterate you, for my sceptre is far more powerful than yours!" She said coldly.

"I don't think so, Queen Granicus! I may look cute and funny, but I'm more powerful than you, you mean old-lady, and to prove it to you, I'm willing to sacrifice myself for my friends and for this Universe. Little old me believes in the good of all things… something you will never understand as long as you live… I believe good will always triumph over evil!" Tweetums declared passionately, as he pressed his attack on the Queen.

"Don't give me 'the good of all' speech, bird! You know quite well you cannot defeat me! Just die!!" She growled, firing some kind of energy wave against Tweetums, trying to knock him down.

What she didn't expect was Tweetums deflecting it back at her. Although the energy wave was not enough to make her drop her defense, Granicus was surprised by Sylth, who, still invisible, was able to knock her down.

"Thank you, putty tat!" Tweetums said in relief.

"You're welcome, chicken-fricassee!" Sylth snorted.

"Yeah, nice one, Sylth. Now I think it's time for us to take what we came here for." Ace said as he walked up to the Queen and looked down at her. "Hand over the sceptre, Queenie! We need that jewel more than you do." Ace ordered.

"You want it, rabbit? Then go get it! Vector, grab it!" She shouted to the bulldog, who had regained consciousness and was heading toward her. She threw the sceptre before Ace or Sylth could prevent her.

Vector caught the sceptre as it soared in his direction. Once he had it firmly in his grasp he ran back to his ship.

Swift tried to intercept him. He grabbed the big dog by the waist, but since he was so much smaller than Vector, the dog was able to rip him off his body and throw him a distance away. The rest of the Loonatics converged on the ship, but quickly discovered the General wasn't trying to escape instead he opened a small door on the ships skin and fiddled with something. As they reached the ship, they discovered what the dog had done.

Something metallic jumped out of a small door that had opened. It looked like a steel wheel. Once it hit the ground, Vector threw the sceptre on it. The strange wheel like thing absorbed the sceptre and began to change, growing larger and larger. After a few seconds, that metallic wheel of sorts became a huge android that was by far larger than any android used by the villains during that invasion. It was black, had pointy-razor fangs and, worst of all, it had a menacing look.

Sylth Vester recognized it immediately. "Sufferin' succotash!! It's a Canine Guardian 7.3!" He sputtered in shock.

"That's right, cat! A Canine Guardian 7.3, state of the art android of the Buldogian Army. It's made of a special metal alloy that is able to withstand most types of attacks and it's faster than most androids its size. These androids were built to protect the cities on my home planet. I, however, have programmed this on to destroy any living subject!" Vector said with pride. "The best part of it, is the fact that it only needs an energy source to activate itself and what better energy source than the Dark Sceptre of Blanc to make it the most powerful android in the universe?! This time, you die, Loonatics! Crush them all!" Vector coldly ordered his android.

As the android immediately moved to obey the General's orders, Ace received an incoming transmission from Tech.

"Ace, what's taking so long? Do you have the sceptre yet?" Tech asked a bit anxiously.

"Well, not yet, Tech, but we're working on it, as we speak." Ace said in a strained voice as he eyed the huge android bearing down on them.

"Well you'd better hurry up, because we only got seven minutes before the reactor explodes." Tech warned him making his leader even more nervous.

Ace had to end the transmission without giving Tech an answer, because the android began to fire on them with a laser from his left wrist. They all leapt out of the way.

Ace was the first to try a counter-attack. He used his laser vision and started looking for anything that could be breached or melted, making it easier for them to destroy it. Unfortunately, he couldn't find a weakness anywhere and his laser wasn't making a scratch on its surface.

"We're short on time, guys! We'll have to make this really quick… Listen, Pinkster, I need you to use your powers to gain entrance into that bucket of bolts. Find a way to stop him or retrieving the sceptre from its innards. The rest of us will keep it distracted, understood?" Ace asked Pinkster.

"L-L-Leave it t-t-to me, Ace!" Pinkster said bravely the made his way to the android.

"Alright, the rest of you do everything you can to buy Pinkster time!" He ordered his team.

Duck started to fire morph balls, hitting the androids eye visor, trying to blind him, but it did not work, because the android did not need his eyes to see them, for he also had a sonar, which pinpointed where all of them were.

Standing still, the android systematically fired at anyone who came near it. Pinkster had to dodge around a lot to get close enough to enter the thing. Slam spun around the base of the thing trying to confuse it a bit, while Swift did the same in the opposite direction. They created a mini dust storm around the feet of the android. Using that as cover, Pinkster finally was able to pass himself through the android's back, without the android knowing, and getting inside it.

Now inside, Pinkster looked around and quickly located the sceptre. It was inserted into a slot of some kind. He tried to pull it free but it wouldn't budge. He figured that if he pulled it too hard he might break it. There was only one other thing they could do. He pulled out his communicator and contacted Ace.

"Ace… We've got trouble. The sceptre is stuck in a slot, and I can't move it. The only way I can think of getting it out is by destroying the android. I'll try to wreak the chest plate, so you can use your abilities to destroy it." He told his leader.

Okay, Pinkster, we'll try to keep it occupied… When you think it's time for us to attack it, give us a sign, okay, buddy?" Ace asked. Pinkster nodded in affirmation and ended the communication.

Ace signalled the others to be on the lookout for anything that could be a signal from Pinkster. Swift tried to confuse the android by running in figure eights, circling his legs, while Lexi fired a few Ballistic Bunny Blasts, accompanied by Ace's laser vision. Tweetums had grown in size and was punching the android, while Slam, who was having the time of his life, helped by Sylth and Mimi, tried to rip the arms off without much success, but at least they did distract the thing.

Meanwhile the android continued its efforts to obliterate them using all the weapons at its disposal. It was getting rather hectic, when something captured everyone's attention.

The android's chest plate was starting to glow red hot. At first, on a tiny section was glowing but soon the spot got larger and larger. They realized it was Pinkster's signal.

The pig was trying to heat the metal enough to weaken it. Ace divided himself into twelve rabbits, and then had all his images concentrate their lasers on that spot aiding Pinkster in his efforts. Soon the entire chest was turning red hot.

"Slam, use your ice breath and freeze the chest!" Ace ordered.

"Blalalagrhglalgh… Gotcha!" Slam said quickly and fired his breath at the now red hot chest.

The sudden change in temperature, made it as fragile as crystal. Duck fired a few Morph Balls, and opened a huge hole in it. Pinkster waved from inside then pointed to where the sceptre was stuck. Ace returned to normal then fired his eye laser at the sceptre.

Everyone else realized what Ace was trying to do and added their powers to his efforts. Soon the sceptre was glowing hot as they poured their energy into it trying to overload the android. Several seconds passed, when finally their efforts paid off as the android exploded. Pinkster had protected himself by turning into a hard ball that was tossed a distance with the explosion, but was unharmed.

The android had blown its parts all over the place. Unfortunately, some of the larger parts landed on their Zoomatrixes, making them explode. The sceptre was shot from the interior like a shooting star. It hit the ground hard and shattered into pieces. Fortunately, its jewel was still intact. Tweetums picked it up and gave it to Ace.

"Now, what do you know… who would think that such a pretty gem, such as this one could be so powerful, hey?" He asked rhetorically.

With the android destroyed, they looked around for their enemies. Unhappily, they only saw Fudd, Melvin (his canine partner still out of it nearby), and Sam. There was no sign of Vector or Queen Granicus. Suddenly they heard a noise from Vector's spaceship. Moments later it took off as fast as it could. Obviously the pair had succeeded in escaping.

"You may have won this battle, Loonatics, but this ain't over yet! I'll get you all next time, Loonatics, next time!!" She sent over their communicator, laughing evilly, as the spaceship got smaller in the sky and then disappeared.

"We can't just let them get away!" Mimi cried out angrily.

"Let them go, Mimi… We already got what we came for." Lexi tried to soothe her angry team mate. "We'll get them both, sooner or later… maybe another day, another place, another time, but we'll get them eventually."

"Speaking of time, we only have two minutes and forty-seven seconds to deactivate that device and stop the reactor or we're toast." Duck said tightly, looking at the time keeper on his communicator. "Without the Zoomatrixes, how the heck are we going to get it there in time?"

"Relax, Duck… We've got the fastest mouse in the Universe on our team, isn't that right, Swift?" Ace asked turning to his little partner, as the mouse gave him a wink of an eye. "You think you can get there in less than a minute?"

"Sure thing, Ace. In fact, I think that I can get there in less than fifty segundos!" He answered confidently accepting the jewel from Ace.

"Perfect! Off you go then!" Ace said warmly.

With the jewel gripped tightly in his hands, Swift took off. Faster than a bullet he made for the Plasma Fusion Plant knowing he had the hope of the world in his hands. He speeded up until he felt his legs burn.

Meanwhile, waiting near the device worriedly, Tech and the others paced and waited. All of them were nervous. Zadavia kept looking toward the door, hoping to see the Loonatics coming back through it. Patricia was worried about the others, and especially about her sister, and could not stop biting her nails. Rev was running from one side to the other, yapping a few words that no one understood for he was speaking even faster than usual. Only Tech seemed to maintain an eerie calm, though deep inside, he was also very nervous.

Suddenly Swift burst through the door and halted abruptly in front of the device. He quickly handed the crystal to Tech while he heaved to catch his breath. He noted the time on the scanner… he'd made it with less than forty-eight seconds left.

"Excellent job, Swift." Zadavia congratulated him.

"It was nada, Zadavia." Swift said modestly.

"So, Tech, can you fix the reactor now?" Patricia asked as the coyote that had grabbed a tool and approached the device with the jewel.

"We'll see it in a few seconds. Let's see if my theory works…" Tech murmured as he focused on his task.

He used the same tool as before to open the schematic again. He searched patiently for the spot he needed not allowing the passing time to unnerve him. Finally, he found what he was looking for and used the jewel on it, causing it to glow when he got it near the device's power source. It fired what looked like a small set of laser waves into it.

Tech took a deep breath, and looked at the time. They only had a few seconds left. He knew that if this didn't work it would be the end for them all. He prepared himself to press the button. Patricia closed her eyes in fear and just hoped that Tech knew what he was doing. Finally the coyote pressed the button and the timer stopped with three seconds left on it. The reactor started to slowly turn back to normal.

Everyone gave a collective sigh of relief.

"Pheeew… That was too close, three more seconds and the reactor would have blown." Tech said slumping in relief, his heart still tripping a little frantically. He turned on the transmitter and called the others. "Good news, guys! The device has been stopped, and the reactor is starting to go back to normal." He told Ace.

"Excellent job, Tech…" Ace said, relieved. "In fact, excellent job, everyone. We all made it, thanks to team work."

"Not bad for a day's work, don't you think?" Lexi asked Duck.

"Yeah, well, we stopped this planet from blowing up, along with everyone in it, including ourselves, defeated our worst enemies, captured a few of them, among other things. I say that it was really not bad at all. But you know what? I think that if I was the one in charge of the operations, I think that Granicus and that dumb dog, would not have escaped… But then again, not everyone can be perfect, like yours truly, for, I'm the one and only Danger Du..!" He rambled on self importantly until Mimi closed his beak while laughing uproariously.

"Duck, stop talking, you're making us all even more insane than that insane queen." She said, still laughing. The others joined in using Duck's humiliation as a way to relieve their pent up fear and anxiety, except for Duck, of course who looked at them with annoyance.

--

Well, the battle is over, but the story is not. There still are a few things to be settled, and the last chapter will clarify them. Don't miss the last chapter.


	17. A New Beginning

Chapter 17: A New Beginning

Chapter 17: A New Beginning

When the citizens of Acmetropolis learned the Loonatics had once again saved them from annihilation, they rejoiced. The people quickly threw together a parade and huge party in their honour, thanking them for what they'd done.

There had never been a party like this in the history of Acmetropolis. The party went on for three days and nights and everyone that could, met their saviours and gave them gifts, hand shakes, and back slaps. They were honoured to have heroes that were not only the protectors of Acmetropolis and Blanc but the Universe as well. They Mayor of Acmetropolis presented them each with a medal of honour for saving his people.

"It is with great honour that I, the Mayor of Acmetropolis, bestow our highest award to the greatest superhero team in the Universe… the Loonatics!" She said beaming a huge smile as she placed an award around each member's necks. Ace gave her a warm smile when she put his on him. "You are an inspiration to us all; not just for saving our world, but showing us that no matter what, evil will never prevail."

As for what happened to the villains… well, that's another story.

Ophiucus Sam and Electro J. Fudd had been arrested and were now in custody along with many other villains that had been caught. They were waiting in a temporary jail to be transferred to the Acmetropolis Maximum Security Prison, when it was operational again. Work was being done at fast pace. No one wanted the criminals to get a chance to escape.

General Melvin the Martian and Sergeant Sirius were deported to Mars and were awaiting trial on their home world. Since he was the greatest general in the Martian Army, the Loonatics knew he would get off with only a slap on the wrist, so to speak, because blowing things up was what Martians do. But he was banned from setting foot on the worlds under the Loonatics protection which was all they could do to him.

It took quite some time to clean up and rebuild everything that was destroyed or damaged by the villains that escaped from prison, or by the Buldogian androids, brought by General Vector, to help Queen Granicus in her plan.

Everything seemed to end well for everyone. But now, it was time to say goodbye.

It was with sadness, the Loonatics said goodbye to their mentor, Zadavia. As she had told them from the beginning, she and her brother, Optimatus, were returning to her world, Freeleng where she would take up the reins as their Queen.

They all gathered at the entrance of Blanc's palace, where Zadavia's ship was waiting, ready to take off. Tweetums insisted that her departure would be done according to protocol. All members of the Royal Guard of Blanc were dressed in their most beautiful uniforms, all of them holding their weapons at parade rest, in two lines, side by side. The palace itself had been decorated according to the tradition. Only the most important figures, who were very close to the king or queen of Blanc, were accorded such a ceremony.

Zadavia really didn't want Tweetums to go to all that trouble, but there was no changing the ruler's mind. She sighed and went along, since she knew how important traditions were. However, she didn't dress in anything fancy. She wore regular travelling clothes. Her hood, however, was not red, but white made from the most beautiful and delicate silk, making her look like a real Queen should.

The Loonatics were the first to arrive, even before the guards, ready to say goodbye to their benefactor, who helped them so much. Without her, they would probably never have met each other. They were all quite emotional; especially Patricia, Lexi and Mimi who dropped a few tears, feeling quite sad about her departure, but knowing that she had no other choice.

"It's been an honour for me to have known each of you. You have surpassed all my expectations, not only as a well trained team, but as a group that acts and functions like a family." Zadavia said warmly with a hint of sadness to be leaving them.

"None of this would have been possible if you hadn't united us all, Zadavia." Ace said with deep feeling.

"Ace's right. You were the one who helped us turn into what we are today. Without you, none of this would have been possible… although your brother was a bit responsible for the creation of the original team." His Feathered Highness Tweetums said with a knowing look toward Optimatus, who nodded his head in acknowledgment of that fact.

"That may be true, but I just pointed the way for you. You were the ones that made it happen, all by yourselves. Some of you even surprised me at how quickly you pulled together as a team." Zadavia said warmly.

"Pero, once you're gone, who do we go to when we need advice?" Swift asked anxiously.

"Don't worry, Swift. Despite how far away I'll be that doesn't mean you can contact me for advice." She said gently. "I will always be there for you. Think of this as not a departure, but a trial separation. It will teach you to learn to rely on yourselves. However, if you ever do need me you know where I am and how to contact me." She told them. She was sad to leave them but knew this day would come eventually.

Optimatus told her that it was time to go. She nodded affirmatively and decided to say a few last words to them all, not only to make them feel proud of themselves, but also to cheer them up, after her departure.

"Before I leave, I have a special message for you. Ace, you are an excellent leader, and now, more than ever, you need to be strong. Continue the job that you started and remember you are not alone in all of this and that your colleagues, partners and friends will always be there for you." Zadavia said to the Loonatics leader.

"We won't disappoint you. You can count on me and the others to go on with our mission." Ace said firmly.

"That's right, boss lady! Danger Duck won't disappoint you either, for I am the most handsome, the bravest and the most courageous of us all!" Duck said pompously, making Zadavia laugh at his audacity.

"One of the things that I'm going to miss, Duck is your grand speeches," Zadavia chuckled causing Duck to blush. "As for the newer members, you have come a long way, but the road before you will be tougher. Some of you had decided to join the team to give new meaning to your lives, others joined to do the right thing and help others. Whatever your reason was, know that you have earned the right to be here. I know that no matter the difficulties you will face in the future, you will be able to overcome them, not only as a team but as individuals as well." She said passionately, looking at each new member in turn, very pleased with the new team she had assembled.

"W-W-We t-t-thank you for g-g-giving us t-t-this opportunity, Z-Z-Zadavia, and w-w-we won't d-d-disappoint y-y-you." Pinkster said, blushing with pride.

"If it hadn't been for you, we would have never gotten our powers and more importantly, we wouldn't have stopped my ex-boss and her minions. Plus, if you hadn't decided to help us, I personally, would probably still be behind bars or even worse." Sylth declared fervently.

"We agree with Sylth. My sister and I thank you for giving us this new opportunity. From the bottom of our hearts, we will be forever in your debt." Patricia said holding her sister, Mimi, hand who was trying hard not to cry.

"Just remember that your way here was tough, but from now on it will easier with your new family around you." Zadavia said while giving both sisters a hug. She then turned and gave each of the Loonatics a hug to help soften her departure.

After that warm goodbye, Zadavia boarded the spaceship, followed by Optimatus. As the spaceship turned on its engines, lifted into the air, then gained some altitude, the members of the Royal Guard of Blanc, fired a ten gun salute while the ship began to majestically soar toward the stars. The Loonatics saluted as the shots filled the air as a sign of respect for their benefactor. Very quickly, Zadavia's ship vanished from view on its way to Freeleng.

"Well, there she goes." Lexi said with a sad sigh.

"Blalrgahlhlg… Now what are we going to do?" Slam asked in his scrambled language.

"We'll do what we've always done, folks. We'll stick together and fulfil our promise to Zadavia… We'll continue our mission." Ace told them firmly. "We're more than we were before, which means we can handle anything that comes our way… there are a lot of bad guys and menaces out there in that big Universe, and its our job to be there to stop them!"

"Now that you mention it… Since we're a bigger team now, I think we could use a new name. One that reflects all the changes we've gone through." Duck said thoughtfully, surprising all of them.

"For once, I agree with you, Duck. We do need a new name, but we still need to keep some of what we were originally while showing who we are now! Any suggestions, folks?" Ace asked his fellow team mates.

"I have one… The Universe Avengers? It's a name fits like a glove, don't you think?" Duck suggested excitedly.

"You've been reading too many comic books, you know?" Patricia snorted. "What we need is a name that is simple, not a name that came out a comic book."

"We need a cool name like, The Sentinels." Mimi suggested.

"It's always an option, but I think it might be a bit too dark for our image. Any other suggestions?" Ace asked, after saying that although Mimi's suggestion was good, that was not what they were looking for.

"I have g-g-got a s-s-suggestion, what about the E-E-Extreme Team?" Pinkster suggested.

"Good, but, that maybe a little bit too extremo, Pinkster." Swift disagreed.

"Then, what if we used "Extreme" and join it with our current name?" Tech suggested.

"If we did that, the name would stay as…" Sylth started to say before he was interrupted.

"Blrhaghalahagh… Extreme Loonatics!" Slam exclaimed, finishing Sylth's sentence, in his scrambled version of English.

"That's almost perfect, but what if we just reverse that and say 'Loonatics Extreme'? It's quite catchy, it's easy to pronounce, and it shows our own evolution as a team and as a group." Tweetums piped up excitedly.

"Tweetums is right. Once we were a group of six and called ourselves 'Loonatics' but now were double that size. We're a bigger, stronger and more resourceful team of twelve members, which is like some sort of a natural evolution. Of course, we have to see that we were amazing and incredible in this extreme mission, in which we saved Acmetropolis, so the name Loonatics Extreme isn't just awesome, incredible and cool… It's just what we really need!" Rev exclaimed in his hyper speed voice.

"I like it! So if everyone agrees, from now on we will be known as the Loonatics Extreme. What do you say, guys?!" Ace asked everyone. The team all nodded. "Then it's settled, from now on, we are the Loonatics Extreme. Let me just say, that whatever the name we use, I say that wherever evil exists, we will be there to stop it." Ace declared.

"That's right! We will keep everybody in the Universe safe!" Lexi echoed with pride.

"To keep the peace!" Duck proclaimed in his usual grandiose manner.

"To correct injustices!" Tech said firmly.

"Blarhaghalagh… To bring hope to those who don't have it!" Slam roared.

"To solve all kinds of problems, whatever those may be…" Rev said simply.

"To stop evildoers and their criminal activities!" Sylth said gravely.

"T-T-To protect the w-w-weak and the innocent!" Pinkster stuttered.

"To maintain the little old order of things!" Tweetums said.

"To defend what is right!" Mimi said.

"To punish bad guys!" Patricia added.

"To make what is correcto!" Swift finished.

"But above all, we will continue to do the thing we are best at not because we're proud of what we do, but because it's our duty to use our special abilities to protect others who don't have them. We're a team, a family, and we stick together for our safety and for the ones in our care. We are the Loonatics Extreme!" Ace proclaimed. "Let the future come, for we are ready, folks!

"Yeah!!" The team cheered.

END OF THE FIRST ADVENTURE

--

NEXT: "LOONATICS EXTREME: SPORTS MADNESS"


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